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Christmas Vacation 2009

Our first stop on our trip was for a yummy breakfast at Denny's. Although we had been awake since 4 am, the boys were super excited!

Our 2 playmates. These two boys LOVE playing the XBox 360 - Playstation - and Wii. What fun!


Jada is Camp's little momma. She loves taking care of him...




You're never too old for the see-saw!

No T.V.!

This is what the boys have to resort to...

Still going strong

We have been having a great homeschool experience these past few weeks. The kids are becoming much better at directing themselves and staying on task. I have gotten much better at keeping my cool when things don't go perfect. I can see my children growing in the Lord every day. I am so blessed to be able to teach my children and protect them from the world. I cannot wait to see what the world will be like when they are adults. I know they will change it for the better!

Scarecrows

Jada
Justin







Elijah

The kids made scarecrows for Halloween. They had a lot of fun cutting, gluing, and decorating their scarecrows. Elijah's looked really good, but smelled kind of funny. All the clothes started falling off and it looked really greasy. When I asked him what he used, he said "a glue stick"
Well, this was no glue! It was chapstick.
Apparently Elijah can't tell them apart. I hope he doesn't glue his lips together the next time he gets chapped lips...

We had a lot of fun at the annual hayride tonight. It was just not the same without my sisters and their families there though. I really missed them. Jada is trying to grow up on me. This is the first year she has ever been interested in "scaring the hayriders." It is a long standing tradition for the boys to hide in the grave yard and jump out to scare the people on the hayride as they pass. Of course, they never scare anyone, but it is fun for them. Well, this year, JADA went with them. Weird! She even put fake blood all over her face. IF you know Jada, you know that is not in her character at all. She was careful not to let me get a picture of her like that however.

Exercise is good for you!

I have a very important announcement to make. My family has gotten up early every day this week to exercise. I am so proud of us. I hope we can keep it up!

Jada's Birthday

Jada wanted a Hobby Lobby shopping spree for her 10th birthday and that is what she got. Tons of scrapbooking dodads to play with. As soon as she got home, she made her first page. Jada definitely likes to make things with her hands. I am happy she has found something she enjoys. We had fun today on our outing.

Pretty Jada

Elijah LOVES Camp Inagehi!

Cheese!

Today

This is the beginning of a new day,God has given me this day to use as I will.

I can waste it or use it for good.

What I do today is very important.

Because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever.

Leaving something in its place I have traded for it.

I want it to be gain, not loss – good not evil.

Success, not failure in order that

I shall not forget the price I paid for it.
My 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Burton used to make us write this poem as a means of discipline. Needless to say, I had it memorized. I am now going to recycle it and take a page out of Mrs. Burton's book. My 6th grader is just as stubborn and cocky as I was at his age. Maybe writing this poem a few hundred times will help him.

Christopher Columbus-Role Model

Ok, so I am a day late posting this,,,,

Since yesterday was Columbus Day, we spent the day learning about Christopher Columbus. All three of the children learned a lot about this great explorer. Here are a few facts from them:

• Elijah: "Christopher Columbus was put in prison for no reason. He kept the chains as a reminder of the experience. I am glad he discovered America. He read the adventures of Marco Polo as a child, and that made him want to find another way to get to India."

• Jada:"He had to go to other countries, begging for money to finance his voyage, because his own country, Italy, would not give him any money. He discovered America with his three ships named Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria"

• Justin: "His boats were named the Pinta, Santa Claus, and Nina. If he didn't discover America, we would not be here."

Here are the qualities I find admirable.

• He was an entrepreneur.
• He was a visionary. He knew what he wanted and he did not let the naysayers hold him back.
• He was a lover of knowledge.

These are qualities we should aim for in ourselves and our children. I really enjoyed our Columbus Day exploration.

• 
  

Funny!

I was so excited to go to East Point Church of Christ tonight to hear my Papaw preach. My mother invited us to go with her tonight. We enjoyed a long afternoon at home, since church did not begin until 7:30 pm, or so we thought. We left around 6, and got to the East Point area early, so we decided to stop at Burger King and have a snack to kill some time. They had music playing SO LOUD in there, I could barely hear myself think. We discovered something hilarious about Justin. He cannot control himself when he hears music. He just has to move to the music. It was so funny, no matter how hard he tried to stop the dancing, he could not help it. We got a good laugh out of that!
But that is not the funniest part of the trip. When we got to the church building, there were not many cars there, and just a few people standing in the parking lot. When we got out of the car, a lady in the parking lot asked if we were there for services. We told her we were, and she then informed us that church was over! It began at 6:00. We arrived an hour and a half too late.
Apparently my mother misunderstood her mother about the time.
Oh well, it was a fun trip. Although I have had a hard time explaining to the kids that we did not INTENTIONALLY forsake the assembly. :)

Yay, I love October

I am so excited! I love Fall. The weather, the holidays, everything about it! I am really looking forward to our Annual Chili night at Momma's. It is always a lot of fun, and the one time a year that I actually eat chili.

I spent the ENTIRE day cleaning! It was actually refreshing to be able to get my house in order. This was a very good week for our unordinary family. I made it through the whole week (except Sunday) without losing my temper. I was even nice enough to help Jada and Justin clean their rooms, which is why it ended up taking ALL day! I really hope they will keep them clean this time, but I am not holding my breath.
ELijah has been at Camp Inagehi this weekend. I really miss him, but I am glad he is able to be around fellow Christians. I am really looking forward to the man he will become. I have been encouraging him to learn who we is and be that person. I know Elijah is such a neat person. I worry though, that he doesn't realize this about himself. He still tends to change his persona depending on who he is around. Oh these years are going to drive me crazy, but I am praying that we all get through them with minimal damage.
Until next time.....

A better day

So, today was a better day. After apologizing for my fit last night, I went to bed and prayed for a better attitude. I have decided to take it one day at a time. My focus for now is on Jada, my middle child. I am having her sit by my side for the entire day to ensure that she stays on task. It took 8 hours today, hopefully it will not take that long every day. sigh.......

Is this normal?

I don't think it is normal for a mother to literally blow her top on a regular basis, but no matter how hard I try, I lose it at least once a week. Is it me? Ok, here's the truth.... I have taken on a task that is too great for me. I am completely overwhelmed. You see, I had the bright idea to begin homeschooling all three of my kids on my own this year. I also have a job that is very demanding of my time. This is NOT working, but I am too stubborn to admit defeat, and there is not anyone here to help me carry the load, so here I am, another week, losing it.
I need to go back to why I made the decision to homeschool in the first place. I know there were good valid reasons. This is not a decision I made on a whim. There were good motives behind this madness that has become my life.

1. I want my children to have a God-centered life and a strong spiritual foundation.
2. I want my children to have a superior education, one not tainted by the humanist agenda.
3. I want my children to understand the severity of sin and how it separates us from God. If they are told day after day that sin is not a big deal, of course they are going to accept that.
4. I want my children to achieve greatness in this world.
5. I want my children to know how to think.

Okay, so it has only been 2 months, but so far, I am failing miserably at this. Looking at my top 5 reasons to homeschool, I cannot see how we are coming close to these ideals. I am not crazy. I know I will not have the perfect home school, the perfect methods, or the perfect kids, and I definitely won't be the perfect mom. I also realize that 2 months is not really a long time at all. I have heard the pep talks, read the articles, bought the books. I know these things take time. But what none of these experts understand, is that I cannot see a point where things will even have a chance to improve.
After losing it tonight, I feel really terrible. I need to go apologize to my kids. I will explain the rest later..