Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve, the day before the second most celebrated holiday for Christians. The stockings are hung, the tree is strung with lights and decorated, there are presents wrapped under the tree, whispers and secret comings and goings, closed doors and smiles of anticipation all around. Katie and I are finally baking Christmas cookies - yes, its late, but its better than nothing. Josh will be heading to church early to practice one last time for tonight's Christmas worship service.

We all still seem to be searching for that elusive peace that Christmas time is supposed to bring. Instead we've found the busy-ness that so many of us discover during this season. We've been shopping and wrapping and cooking and driving and preparing and unpacking and settling in to our new home. We've been so busy that the day has sneaked up on us. I guess we weren't looking.

It makes me think about what's really important.

The day we celebrate Christ's birth on doesn't matter, but HOW we celebrate it does. It's not about the presents, or the cookies, or the lights. It's about realizing that God sent us His Son. He sent him to earth as the most helpless creature we humans can be. Its also the least intimidating form we can ever be. Who could ever reject a precious baby? And yet, that baby grew to be a man who died for us all and that's when He is rejected. How sad. So many celebrate Christmas and yet reject the One its about. It doesn't make sense to me. Its like celebrating someone's birthday whom dislike, or care nothing about. Who does that? All He asks of us is that we give Him our lives in return. We don't need to just believe in Him, but we need to live for Him. So simple, and yet so hard for so many.

I'm so grateful for my husband and my children, and my new son-in-law. What precious gifts they all are. Each one unique, each one loved. I'm even grateful for being busy. The inner peace is there, the outer peace will come in January.

May the joy of Christmas be with you all, and if you don't have peace yet, stop searching so hard - He's right there, just waiting for you to chose. God's grace (grace - a gift we don't deserve) is there for the taking. Once you take it, open it. And may Grace and Peace be with you.

New Surroundings

I had all sorts of amazing blog posts planned. Photos of our old view vs. our new view. Blogging from the road on our journey to our new home. Photos of the moving truck delivering our "household goods" (mover term for "stuff"). Photos of our new home. Yep, lots of things planned, but not much actually happened.

For the record:

We left Texas on Friday, Dec. 5. Drove for three long days and arrived up north on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 9:00 pm.

We woke Monday morning to a balmy 7 degrees, drove to our bank an hour away to get the cashiers check for closing, but we still didn't know the amount we needed to bring. Sat in the parking lot for a bit while we tried to get the right number, and then we guesstimated it because we were running out of time. Drove 45 minutes to our new home for our final walk through - a little difficult because the people we bought the house from were still moving out. Not their fault - their movers showed up late. Drove back to our temporary living space to pick up Kate and Josh, and then dropped them off with Zach and Maddie for lunch while Tom, Emma and I went to go sign lots of papers. Well, Tom and I signed them, Emma tried to eat them.

The movers came at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Dec. 9 and delivered stuff "household goods" all day, finishing the delivery on Wednesday by noon-ish.

By Thursday night we had most of the beds assembled, the living room was pretty much together, and pictures were hanging. Since then, we hung Christmas lights, picked up our tree and decorated it and finished some Christmas shopping. Whew! It's only been two weeks since we bought our house!

The dog has rediscovered the joys of a woodstove, the kids have all discovered the joy of sledding down our hill on broken down moving boxes, I've discovered the LL Bean Outlet store (great for boots, gloves, etc.). I have a new appreciation for a dryer since our electric one won't work and the gas one we ordered won't be in for another week or so.

Winter greeted us yesterday and all night last night with a wonderful Nor'easter. Our unofficial snowfall total in our backyard is 17 1/4 inches. Zach and Maddie are having a BLAST! Good thing Tom picked up a snowblower yesterday on the way home from church!

Texas Sky

 We had a cold front come through the other day. Ok, it was a "cold" front. Texas style. Took us from about 75 degrees down to 60. Brrr! I'm gonna miss the weather here! The clouds were really pretty, so I took a couple of pictures to remember it. The sky really is bigger in Texas.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

If this doesn't make you smile, nothing will.

Non-Stop

Katie is flying home today so she's here for Josh's and her birthday. She scheduled a non-stop flight out of Portland Maine. It was a little late (an hour) taking off, but we weren't concerned because it was a non-stop flight. So I just pick her up at the airport a little later than planned. No big deal. EXCEPT.... I guess US Airways didn't use the same dictionary as the rest of the English speaking population. The non-stop flight that Katie was on, stopped. In Philadelphia. And it was planned. Kind of makes you go, "Huh?" Not only did it stop, but it stopped late. And the flight that was supposed to continue to DFW left on time, so she and about 5 other passengers missed their connecting flight (don't forget, this was non-stop) to DFW and are rescheduled on another flight to arrive about 5 hours later than they should have. No, Katie didn't make a mistake. I have her itinerary. No this wasn't an unscheduled stop. Apparently that's the way this flight works from Portland to DFW. So, are we the only ones who now completely understand why the airlines repeatedly receive such poor customer service ratings?

Sorry, no cute pictures. I need to get a new battery for my camera. The rechargeable ones don't seem to work anymore. Recharged too many times?

Stretching

A rather fitting title I think.

Its been a long "stretch" since I last posted. No, it didn't take over a month to get my computer back. The Mac came home safe and sound. By some miracle, I lost absolutely nothing on the computer, but we did purchase an external hardrive to back up everything - especially those priceless pictures that I don't have backed up anywhere else, just in case the "Click" happens again. I really don't want to experience that heart failure of fear again.

Other ways I'm stretching: First a definition, courtesy of Webster.

Stretch (verb) -
to extend in a reclining position. Nope, doesn't really apply.

to reach out. Well, yeah, this one applies. Our family is stretching - Kate's marrying John. John's in Iraq. Kate's moving this weekend to make wedding plans. Yep. We're stretching out our family.

to cause to reach or continue (as from one point to another or across a space). Oh! That's a good one. See, we're reaching to another point. Moving back to New England. Yep. That qualifies.

to pull taut. Now we're on to something! You see, the reason why we're moving is for my amazing husband's job. Except that his employer isn't very forthcoming with information regarding the move, the job, the money, etc. Also, I'm trying to be there for my oldest daughter, you know, to help her plan her wedding. But I have this cute little almost 4 month old baby who demands some attention. Oh, and I have 3 other children who occasionally like to be noticed, and whose education is entirely up to me to provide, so I need to pull together our school curriculum for this year knowing that we'll be moving at some point during the semester. And I need to make it easy for me so I actually keep up with it and interesting for them so they actually do it. It needs to be accepted by college admission departments for the one in high school so he has a decent chance of getting into the college of his choice should he choose to attend college and that way he won't blame me for the rest of his life for not teaching him something really necessary. And then there's the task of preparing the house for sale. In a down market. Where every bit of clutter equals $1000 less and an extra month on the market. And I really didn't think we'd be moving, so I have a lot of stuff. (Come on, what homeschooling mother of 5 doesn't have a lot of stuff?)

So that brings us to the next part of the definition -

to cause the limbs of (a person) to be pulled especially in torture. Oh yeah. I'm there. Torture. Like on a medieval rack. Crank. Crank. Crank. Yep. The joints are getting ready to pop. Fortunately for me, there's yet one more part of this definition of stretch:

to become extended without breaking. Ok. So I won't break. God promises me that. So, knowing that He's on my side, I can get through this. Hopefully maintaining some grace and dignity. And sanity. But I'm not sure I have any sanity to maintain. I lost it all long ago.

I think Zach and Maddie illustrate pretty well how I feel.

Click

My computer died. On Sunday afternoon, I turned around to look something up on the internet (what in the world did we do before Google?). I searched, got a few options that looked like they potentially had the information I was looking for. Clicked on a couple. And then... Click. Just like that. Click. The computer shut down. It even made that noise. Click. No power outage. No power surge. Just a simple little Click. I tried to turn it on again. I unplugged it and re-plugged it and tried to turn it on again. I tested the outlet to make sure it still had power. It did. I unplugged it for an hour, plugged it back in and tried to turn it on again. Still nothing. I called the tech support line. The tech's answer? Unplug it, leave it off for about 20 seconds. Then plug it back in. Gee, and you get paid for this? (By the way, it didn't work even when the official tech-guy told me to do it.)

So, we had to take it in to the store for service. That was on Monday. They kept it. Its Thursday. I miss my Mac! I'm sitting here trying to use a PC for the first time in 2 years. Its so unfamiliar. And once upon a time I hated Mac's and thought PC's were the only option if you were serious about computers. I admit it. I was wrong. Once.

Still waiting for the call to pick it up. The service guy at the Genius Bar (can I work there? I love that. Genius Bar.) said it would take 3 - 5 business days. Its been 3. I want my Mac back. Now, please.

Summertime Fun (Unless You're a Bug)

Zach and Maddie went outside yesterday to play with one of the other neighborhood kids. They were out there for HOURS - I love that. All kids should play outside for hours at a time - in fact, maybe there should be a law, but that's another topic. Anyway, hubby comes home from work, and they're still out there playing. When he asked them what they were doing, Zach tells him they're burning bugs. With his magnifying glass. Maddie excitedly pipes in, "Yeah, and one of them caught on fire! So we spit on him!" Oh, the joys of summer. Unless you're the bug.

On a side note, Zach ended up with a killer headache when they came inside. We couldn't figure out why. Turns out he was looking at the bright light the magnifying glass made on the bugs. Ok, so I never said my kids were bright. (No pun intended.)

The Things I Should Be Doing

I woke up at about 4:00 this morning. I say "about" because my alarm clock is set a little fast to try to keep me on time, but I can't remember how fast it is, so I really have no idea EXACTLY what time I awoke. Emma was up, and wanted to be changed and fed. The last two days she's developed this sweet little habit of smiling at me when I change her diaper. Really smiling. And sometimes she talks to me, too. So I changed her, snuggled her close, fed her and went back to bed to get a little more sleep. Sleep didn't come. So I got up, came downstairs, put on the coffee for my dear husband who gets up at 5:00am every morning to leave the cave and kill something go to work. Then I decided to make muffins. Not just any muffins. Apple Cinnamon Streusel Muffins. YUM! Thanks Betty Crocker! I wanted them to be done before hubby left for work, but alas, that didn't happen. I'm a slow baker. Plus he needed me to fix a button on the shirt he wanted to wear today, which is probably the reason why I was up so early - he needed me to sew for him. So I started out on a roll, I mean a muffin (sorry), but things quickly fizzled out. I should have accomplished much by now. There are a TON of things I should be doing:

• Washing Zach and Maddie's sheets
  
• Washing diapers
  
• Dishes from making muffins
  
• Finding the PERFECT curriculum option for us
  
• Cleaning the bathrooms
  
• Dusting
  
• Figuring out what to make for dinner
  
• Watering the flowers
  
• Planting the rest of the flowers
  
• Paying the bills
  
• Cleaning up the library study sewing room
  

But instead, I'm checking blogs and praying for celebrating this new life born this morning to a family I only met briefly once at a homeschool convention. I'm eating muffins with my two middles, who used to be my littles until my littlest was born. And I'm doing this:
And I'm trying to lock into my memory exactly how she feels, how she smells (very nice), and how she sounds because all too quickly they grow up. So if you come to visit me, please forgive me for the condition of my home. I'm enjoying my baby, and watching my middles because before too long they'll be much bigger and these days will be over.

I'm Ready for My Close Up

Emma on camera. I'm trying to figure out how to include a video in a post. So this is really a test, but since she's so stinking cute, I thought I'd actually post it instead of just leave it as a draft. She was talking before I hit the record button, but as soon as I hit it, she stopped. She's really very shy you know. And for the record, I needed help from my 7 and 9 year old to figure out how to make the computer video program work. I guess that makes me officially old(er). Nothing like new technology to make you feel out of touch.

The World is a Poorer Place

On June 18, an amazing and talented woman, Tasha Tudor, passed away.

I found Tasha several years ago and fell in love with the way she lived her life. Her favorite era was the 1830s and she lived her life as if she were in that time - from the home her son built her by hand, to the growing of flax to weave into fabric that would become clothing, to the hand dipped candles she made and used. Her artwork was similar in style to Beatrix Potter, another of my favorites - simple and enchanting, often with beautiful flower borders around the edges of the paintings. I always wanted to have a Tasha Tudor original painting or first edition book, but I would imagine that the prices now will be even higher than before, so I doubt I'll ever have one. But, you know, that's ok. Because what I have instead is the knowledge that if you dream it, you can do it. The life she lived was on purpose. She didn't do things because life happened to her, she purposefully chose her surroundings and activities. She didn't go along with what everyone else was doing. She did things her way, in her time. She will be missed by many.

Happy Birthday!

As a Baby:




Getting bigger:











A little boy:











And now:


Happy 9th Birthday, Zach!

What I've been doing since April 29th...

Staring at this:



Isn't she beautiful? Emma Catherine - Emma because we love the name, Catherine is after both my grandmothers.

So, the stats, even though if you're reading this you probably know... She was born at 10:40 pm, April 29th. 7 lbs. 20 inches. Born at home. Yes, we planned it. Yes, we had a midwife. No, there aren't any drugs involved with homebirth. Yes, its legal (although the American Medical Association wants to change that).

So we're now a family of seven. Seven?! Oh, that sounds so big! It doesn't seem like a large family, but when you take up every seat in a minivan I suppose it qualifies. We're really enjoying having a baby in our home again. Even the middle of the night feedings are a blessing. God is good.

Cute kid quotes this week

Maddie (out of the blue) - "How do they cut the extension cord?"
Mom - "You don't cut an extension cord. It's dangerous."
Maddie - "No. After the baby's born. How do they cut the extension cord?"

Maddie - "Mom, I think I found a poocon!"
Translation - I want to buy a toy, and I think I found a COUPON.

Josh at lunch - Puts his hand on the back of his neck and looks up at the ceiling - "Oh, there's a bone there."
Zach, Maddie and Mom look up at the ceiling simultaneously and ask, "Where?"
Josh laughs and says, "In the back of my neck where it is sore."

What is the UNCRC?

Please know that I'm still learning about this treaty, so some of my information may not be 100% correct.

The UNCRC is a treaty that has been signed by all member nations of the U.N. except two - the U.S. and Somalia. I don't know why Somalia hasn't signed it, but from what I understand, any international treaty signed by the U.S. bears just as much legality as laws passed within our country, so signing this would drastically change our laws. Some of the changes. One of the good things - that every child has the inherent right to life. Most absolutely! But it also says that every child shall be registered immediately after birth (how immediately? Will someone need to attend every birth to phone, fax, or otherwise document the new child?)

Also says (in Article 9):

States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child. Such determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child's place of residence.

Please note - it said except when competent authorities determine separation is in the best interests of the child. I don't know about you, but I have seen many cases where the authorities aren't very competent, and who gets to determine what is in the best interests of the child? Not the parents. This opens up way too many possibilities for our children to be removed from our homes because of what some stranger who may or may not be competent deems to be in the "best interests" of our children.

Now lets look at Article 13:

1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.

So does that mean that my children can draw on my walls, call it "art" and not be disciplined? Does it mean that if my child wants to learn about and become a Satanist I have to allow it? Sounds a little scary to me.

Article 15:

1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.

So now my kids can be friends with whomever they want to be friends. We can't tell them not to associate with someone we don't approve of because it would be illegal. And if they want to spend countless hours "hanging out", we need to allow it, no matter where, no matter when, no matter with whom.

Article 16:

1. No child shall be subject to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.

So, for all parents of young children who need, um, assistance in the bathroom - that would be illegal as it would subject the child to interference with his or her privacy. Also, parents of teens - no snooping through snail mail, email, or my space comments - it is an invasion of privacy.

There are several other Articles in the treaty. Feel free to educate yourself on it.
The good news is that the U.S. hasn't signed it. Yet. The bad news is that if the U.S. signs it, parents will no longer have the right to decide how to raise our children. Not unless the Constitution is amended to protect parental rights. Check out Parental Rights.org

I realize some of my interpretations are a little silly, but the reality is that this treaty could allow the state to have access to our children and our homes any time they want. This treaty could allow the state to decide that it doesn't like homeschoolers, and remove children from their families. This treaty could allow the state to decide how we teach our faith to our children, or worse, decide that we can't teach our faith to our children. This treaty opens up too many possibilities for the government to take our children away from us.

Snow!

We actually got snow! In Texas! And not just a little! There's about 6 inches on the van. I'm not sure what the official reports are, but I'd say 6 inches here.



Kate and Josh went outside about 9:30 last night to play with one of Josh's friends.



Guess what they made? A Snowman, of course. But not just any normal looking snowman. See, if our kids are involved, they need to take it to a different level. So would you like to see what they built?



Look closely. The snowman on the left is bowling. What's he using? The head of the snowman on the right! See the little bowling pins? See the snowman's head rolling toward them?

Here's a picture of the scene this morning. You can see the headless snowman searching for his head.



What happened to this guy?



Look closely. See the pole going through him? He was impaled by the stop sign.



I love my kids!!!

Planning

Its only February, but we need to start planning our homeschooling for next year. The first part sounds easy - complete a survey for our co-op group so they know which classes to prepare for high school and how many parents they'll need as teachers. The math and science survey is easy. Josh will do Geometry and Physics next year. BUT, if Geometry is only going to be taught once a week instead of twice a week, we may not want to take it at co-op, we might do it at home on our own. If Physics is taught by the woman who absolutely LIVES for science, then he'll take Physics at co-op (even if its only once a week), but if it is taught by the other person who seems to make everything more difficult than it needs to be, well, then we'll need to do that one at home, too. So if we do math and science at home, which curriculum will we use? Well, math - there's Teaching Textbooks - we used it last year for PreAlgebra and Algebra 1. Great program for homeschoolers. There's VideoText - what Josh is using this year at co-op for Algebra II. It comes highly recommended, but I'm not thrilled with it - its a little complicated for home use, but it works well for co-op. Then there's Saxon (lots of drill), Singapore (not even sure which book teaches Geometry), Bob Jones, Abeka, and several others. Ok, Math might be a little complicated. Let's move on to Science.

If Josh takes Physics at co-op, it will be Bob Jones curriculum. Ok. BUT if we do it at home, do we use Bob Jones? Abeka? Apologeia? Do we even do Physics at home? Maybe we'll go back and do Biology next year. But then the same curriculum question comes up. PLUS, we have to make sure we do the labs - can't give full credit without the labs. Oh, and there's always the option of dual enrollment at the community college - take a science class there (with the lab) and let it count for high school and college credit. Possibly an option. Hmmm, maybe Science is a little complicated, too. Let's move on to English.

The English survey for co-op asks what we want/need for next year. A writing program? Well, yes, but I'm not too thrilled with the program this year, but then I don't have any better suggestions, so I suppose it is better than nothing. Literature? Absolutely! But that's one we can easily do at home. Its just a simple matter of deciding which books to study. I hate using a textbook for literature - they give you just a snippet of great writing, ask you to analyze it, and move on to the next snippet. I definitely think literature should be studied by actually reading an entire book! Radical, I know. And then there's the WordView curriculum option at co-op. An amazing curriculum. Teaches our kids how to think, how to reason through things. Yes, another radical idea. If we choose that option, it will count for 3-4 credits, so we might not need anything else other than math and science. The downside of it is that the books are a little on the challenging side, and Josh isn't an amazingly strong reader, so I'm afraid he'd be more frustrated with trying to keep up than anything. But then, sometimes a challenge is good. Still not sure about English, so I'll put it off and discuss with hubby when he gets home tonight. Unfortunately, the surveys are due tomorrow, so we don't have a ton of time to mull it over.

Then we have the other items - SAT prep. Pretty important. Music. Important to be a well rounded individual, plus Josh really loves playing the guitar. History? Not necessary if we do WorldView, but if we don't then I need to find something. Kind of takes us back to the curriculum question. If we do all this at home, do we use a prepackaged curriculum? Build our own? Satellite? Videos? Textbooks? Real books? Some make credit counting easy, others make you really think about how to count the subjects being studied.

So all that is just for how to get Josh through 10th grade. But I also need to plan out 11th and 12th for him to make sure he gets everything he needs to be prepared for college (and more importantly, for life).

Then there's Zach and Maddie. I like using whole books. Something about actually reading a real book and learning from it makes sense to me. I don't like textbooks and workbooks (except for math - they work for math). BUT with a new baby in the picture, I'm not sure how much time I'll really be able to spend reading and teaching, so the video programs and textbooks/workbooks are rather appealing to me. But I don't want to shortchange their education just because I'm busy with a new baby. But I don't want to plan on having time to read and teach and then shortchange them by not really having time to read and teach. (Sigh.)

The thought of just sending the kids to the nearest school on the first bus that comes by is starting to look appealing. Let someone else make the decisions. Then if it doesn't work out, I have someone else to blame. But I guess it would still be my fault for sending them to school instead of teaching them at home, so maybe that's not the answer at all. Sure would be easier in the short run though!

Anybody out there have an answer? I don't want to be in charge right now. These choices are too hard. I want it to be simple. One size fits all education. Oh, that's what the public schools do. Doesn't seem to always work very well. Back to square one. What are we doing for next year?

Cleaning Results

The hall closet cleaning carried over to cleaning off the baker's rack, which carried over to cleaning out the pantry. Why? Well, stored in the hall closet was the box of Tom's Grandma's china that his parents sent us back in October. We stuck it in the closet because it was packed so well, and at the time we weren't sure whether we were staying or moving. We're still not sure, but I decided that Grandma's china doesn't belong in the back of the closet, it belongs out - so how pretty would it be displayed on the baker's rack? However, in order to make room for it, I needed to clean of the other items we already had there. Then, in order to find a home for all those things that were displaced by the china I had to clean out the pantry. That took most of the afternoon yesterday. I still have a couple of things I need to find a home for, but its taking shape. The cleaning domino effect continues.

Another result of cleaning out the closet - Zach and Maddie have found a new place to play. Tom came home the day we cleaned it out to find them playing in the closet - they had on their swimming goggles and snorkels and were pretending they were underwater explorers! How fun! Yesterday they did all their school work in the closet, then spent time in there with flashlights making shadow puppets on the wall.

You know, in the last year, we have gotten rid of enough "stuff" to fill another house. The more we get rid of, the more we realize we need to get rid of! I guess its an ongoing process. That would be the "keeping" part of "housekeeping". You don't "housekept", so its not something you do once and then you're done. Its ongoing (hence the "ing" at the end of the word). And you can't put it off to do later, that would be future tense, as in, "I will housekeep." Someday, my children will housekeep, so they can use future tense, but for all of us who already have a house, or an apartment, or an RV, or a boat, or a space of some sort that we're responsible for, we can't use the future tense - that would be procrastination. Kind of like what I'm doing right now as the laundry sits in the dryer waiting for me to come fold it. I need to get that done, but its lunchtime, and I'm hungry and need to feed the munchkins, so laundry will get put off just a little longer, then on to finish cleaning out the pantry. See? Ongoing. Housekeep-ing.

Good grief, I don't post much!

So, something happened to January. I'm not sure what it was, but it disappeared before I knew it! We had company, but still, you'd think I would have noticed that we were actually IN January before it left! And now, here we are. February 6th!

I spent this afternoon cleaning out the closet under the steps. It looks great! Except I now have an abundance of things that were in the closet but I don't want to return to the closet (since it doubles as our tornado shelter, and I don't want to spend precious minutes trying to dig out our shelter from behind a pile of stuff when we really need to take cover). So, to find a home for all the items that are still out, I need to clean out another room - maybe the laundry room. There's a shelf above the washer and dryer where I could put a lot of these things, but the shelf is full right now, so if I clean it off and organize it, I might find the space I need. Does this ever happen to anyone else? You clean one area, and as a result you clutter another, so need to clean that one, then end up cluttering another, and so on, and so on. I think we need less stuff.