Okay homeschool moms.  You’ve heard this before.  More than once I am sure.
”I don’t know how you do it.”

This is how I do it.

Chocolate.

Right?

Well… I do enjoy my fair share of dark chocolate, but that isn’t really what gets me through the days. 

Galatians 6:9  And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

My help comes from the LORD.  Not Hershey, Dove, or even Godiva.

James 1:2-4  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Chocolate doesn’t HURT the situation, however.

Romans 12:12  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

I’m not Job.  Thank you, LORD, that I have not been tested like Job.  Still, a recent reading of Job from a children’s book  has taught me new things.  A KID’S book.  Love it.

James 5:11   Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

So – when people say, “How do you do it,” I very quickly assess what they are really saying.  We all know that when MANY people say that to us, it is their politically correct way of saying, “I don’t want to do what you do.  I want to drop my kids at the bus stop in the morning, say, ‘See ya’,’ meet some friends at the gym and stop by Starbucks before I clean my house and do my laundry-for-four in silence.  Have at it Jesus-freak.” 

BUT – some people who say that really are looking for the source of our strength.

And it isn’t chocolate, is it?

The big four and I are participating in our church’s first Passion play, titled, “Who Can He Be?”
I am playing a mocker.
Yup.  A mocker.  I shout mean things at Jesus, and confront Peter at the fire outside the late night trial with Caiphas.
Tabitha was a bit concerned for me when she learned what I was going to be doing.  She suggested that I cross my fingers when I say my mean words and then pray afterward and tell God that I didn’t mean it.
I assured her that God understands.

 

Every January, on Martin Luther King Jr. day, we don coordinating clothes, comb our hair extra carefully and get in the car for family portraits. 

The pictures will be back next Monday, but I have one on CD that I bought straight out so  could order a large one from Snapfish.  For now I will share the progression of family shots.   Enjoy.  And check out the metamorphosis of my hair!

Just one child.  We had no clue!  LOL.
We dropped over $100 on this photo shoot.  I still have some left over. 
Anyone want a wallet sized photo of John and I circa 2001?

Still one child.  Just found out #2 was coming. 
Look at Stewy’s little self.  ♥

This next one was one of those years where you just weren’t
going anywhere.  The photographer got two, and I mean only two images. 
Look at Stewart’s face.  The other shot showed Stewart renting his clothes
like an angry Old Testament prophet.  Do I look stressed?  Do I? Do I?  LOL. 
Still, no clue.  We spent hardly any money this year.  But I did buy a handful.
Look at Nigel’s precious baby self.

Love this next one.  Look at my sweet boys.
I was about 12 weeks pregnant with Marie here.

I love this one.  They are 4, 2, and 6 months old.  I love these guys. 
I’m starting to get a clue…  And I wasn’t stressed. 

Well, by this point I had long since accepted that it all about the percentage
of people who look good for the shot…  With five people, if four are looking
good, that is 80%.  For $12.88 or $3.99 a sheet, does it matter if a few aren’t looking? 
At least we look so good.   Look at Marie’s joyful self.  And Stew’s big Daddy hug.

I was pregnant for Tabitha here.  About six months.

This one is, um, special.  I never realized until just now how goofy it is. 
The kids are all looking a little stressed!  Hmmm.  And John and I look relaxed. 
I don’t remember anything special about this day, at all!

The first thing you may notice here is the kids are wearing the same clothes. 
Yes, well, it gets hard to find coordinating outfits for 6 people.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

I love my hair. 

These photos are my favorite.  These are pics of pics.  We didn’t get to go in on
Martin Luther King Jr. day that year.  We ended up not getting in until March. 
I LOVE our clothes.  I LOVE the poses.  I love the kids’ faces.  I LOVE these pics. 
Many of this year’s photos still hang on our walls.

These were the worst pictures ever.  EVER. 
Our appointment was at 3 or something.  They called early in the day and asked if we could come in an hour early.  We agreed.  Adjusted quiet time.  Got ourselves together, got there early and promptly waited over an hour.  Seriously.  Then we were RUSHED through our sitting.  They cut Marie out of the picture.  The other family shot had Tabitha’s shirt askew displaying too much of her skin.  I didn’t buy any except the cheap-o package.  I also politely shared my dissatisfaction in the online survey they sent out.  I ended up with two years’ free membership and a certificate for a boat load of photo sheets.  I accepted happily knowing we had a new baby coming in the next year.  I was 5 months pregnant with Johanna.

Speaking of Johanna, here she is!  I love this photo. 
Love it.  I like the pile on the floor.  I love our colors. 
I love that I can see their personalities.  It was a great shot.

And this is the first one from this year.  I ordered a 20 X 30 for over the fireplace from Snapfish. 
I hope it gets here today.

Look at their faces.  They are so cute!
I wore the same sweater as a few years back.  As I said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

It was three years ago that we started the basement project. 
In the end of 2008 John sealed the walls and framed the basement.

In January 2009 he painted the floor.

We didn’t take photos for a while.  In 2009 and into 2010 John did the behind the scenes stuff.  Lots of electric.  Boxed in windows.  Put in doors.

In October 2010 we hired someone to hang the dry wall

and in December I primed it.

In 2011 John did more electric partly for the basement and partly for the pool outside… but basically we didn’t do much.  We did vacations and a ton of gardening and yard work.

John finished what he needed to do in December by boxing in the supports and wiring the ceiling.
I painted the basement.  Nigel painted the stair trim.  We hired someone to hang the ceiling.
John did more electric.  [We changed our minds on some things along the way.]

We hope to hang trim wood in the next few weeks and then buy carpeting when we get our income tax return. 

I am so excited!  It is going to be a family room.  A fun room.  A place for gathering with friends.  As our family grows even having another family over for dinner takes up space.  It will be so lovely to have some more room for playing and conversations.

I am so bad about before/after pictures.  I have so few.  It is about 600 square feet in size. 

My son saved me from a mommy meltdown today.
I am coming down w/a cold I think. I told Stewart this A.M. I felt sick and rather tired.
HOURS later [after 90 minutes at Walmart getting haircuts] I told the oldest three I felt weary – like I was going to cry – and I didn’t know why. Just coming down with something, I guessed. I had a headache starting and my throat hurt a little.
An hour or so later, after doing history, poetry, Bible work, story time, and science I put my head on the table to collect myself. I was *almost* done my school day but just HAD to make myself do school with Tabitha. It’s Kindergarten. So it is optional. And I tend to want to skip it some days to do work or chores. But I have been working harder to do it everyday. Stewart saw my head on the table and said, “Why don’t you just go take a nap, Mom? Johanna is napping.”
I said, “I still need to do Tabitha’s school.”
He said, “Can she skip it today? You need a nap.”
I said, “No, honey. I can’t let her down.” [Tabitha loves doing her school and she is a better, nicer, happier child when she gets to do it.]
Stewart says, “I’ll do it with her,” and he went into the kitchen and said, “Tabitha, I am KINDLY going to do your math with you today. I am going to help you.”
Then all the kids wanted to be her teacher. But she just really wanted Stewart at that point. She and Stewart have a very contentious relationship. They are very similar.
I stopped long enough for a photo before I headed for a short nap.

I am so blessed.  These kids rock. 

Ecclesiastes 5:12  – People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much.
But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.

Psalm 127:2 – In vain you rise early and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat–for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Proverbs 3:24 -when you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

My Aunt Jackie came from Errington, British Columbia into Kingston, Ontario for a few weeks’ visit.  My cousin Cathy had arrived back in December from Cold Lake, Alberta.  My Aunt Betty [from Kingston] brought them down for a weekend to visit Nan, and Nan brought everyone over for dinner on Saturday.

It was a lot of fun.

Aunt Jackie signed our tablecloth.

Aunt Betty took on Nigel for checkers.

Aunt Cathy played Tabitha in a game of princess Go-Fish.

And Nan and Stewart took their turn at checkers. 
Johanna was interested in the pieces, as well.

We tried to pose for some photos, but Hanny just wasn’t into it.

We tried again later in another room with other people.

Check out the zoom on Marie’s face.  She was wearing Nan’s glasses and decided she wanted to look like an old person, “Or, Ben Franklin.”

I am catching up a bit.  On January 2nd, John had the day off work and I went to town painting the basement.  We are moving right along on that project and it was just the right timing to get that job done.  Daddy taking over the schooling means they get to skip language.  That’s because Daddy’s eyes gloss over when you say things like, “Predicate nominative,” and “Object of a preposition,” and “Relative clause phrases.”  So instead, he has time left over to do the “Optional,” boxes in our history curriculum which included staging Washington’s retreat from Cornwallis at Trenton. 

Hermie was Cornwallis.
Wormie was Washington
And the rest of the animals got roles as Patriots, Red Coats, and Hessians.

And I am sure the kids will remember more about the Battle of Trenton than I ever did. 

Tabitha is only 5½ years old.  Since the day she was born she has been trying to keep up with the big three.  She does very well with that.  She started losing teeth almost a full year earlier than her siblings and she does it in her own unique way.

See, Stewart and Marie, and now Tabitha, do this weird thing where they like to grow their adult teeth BEHIND their baby teeth.  And in Stewart and Marie’s case it has required visits to the DDS to extract the baby teeth because they are not loose enough to pull out.  It costs us $110 to have a tooth extracted. 

Tabitha has a different approach.  When an adult tooth was first spotted behind a baby tooth a few months back I made an appointment to have her tooth extracted.  Tab took to wiggling it and got the tooth out before the appointment.  Nice!  [I should have given HER $110!] 

A few days ago, she showed us that another adult tooth was poking through for a second time.  The baby tooth in front didn’t wiggle at ALL!  It was solidly in place.  I knew we’d need the DDS this time!  Well, I have been TRYING to remember to call the DDS this week.  Today she and I both remembered and I told her after the piano teacher left I would call for an appointment.  I also encouraged her to wiggle it “like crazy.”  I was figuring that when I called they’d give me an appointment a few days from now.  I was hoping that if she started to wiggle it a little it *might* come out before we go.   I had my doubts.  It was in there solidly. 

Or not.

About 9 minutes later she came to me with the tooth.  And gobs and gobs of blood.  Bright, red, streaming, fresh, copious blood.  I have no idea how she got it out that fast.  She means business.  She also got ice cream.  In these disciples’ house when a child loses a tooth he or she gets to pick out a “half-gallon” of ice cream to share with the family.

[Psst – she looks so  much like my photos as a kid it startles me sometimes!]

The fact that Christmas is over doesn’t fill me with the disappointment it did as a child.  It’s not that the celebration is over and I am left wondering why the event didn’t live up to the hype.  I am more sad because there is nothing left to look forward to for a long, long time.

• I am sad that there is no more Christmas music being played on my favorite radio station.
• I am sad that we are four months away from our next birthday celebration.
• I am blue that we have weeks, and weeks, and weeks of cold, dark weather ahead of us.
• I am sad that we have a number of activities starting that are going to keep me busier than I’ve been and on-the-run, such as swim lessons, our  homeschool co-op, American Heritage Girls and our church’s passion play.  Things that are good for the kids’ character, but require scraping off the car, finding mittens and hats, and lugging supplies in the snow.
• I have blue that we have 13 weeks until Easter.
• I am still grieving the loss of our baby.  Counting down weeks to his or her arrival would have helped mark off the winter weeks and made the push to finish school early a more pressing goal.  I never dreamt that I wouldn’t be with child as this New Year moved in.  If you’d told me last January that we’d not be expecting a new little one this time this year I wouldn’t have given you the time of day.
• I am annoyed that the rest of the world does not keep there thermostat at 73-74 degrees, like we do, and that I am always COLD wherever I go. 

I hate winter.  I just do.  I hate being busy.  I hate not having dates on the calendar to look forward to things. 
Time to be bored, cold, and busy. 

How can I be bored yet busy?  Bored because there isn’t anything EXCITING coming out of the busy-ness.  No parties, no holidays, no vacations to prepare for.  Just busy.

I know that sometimes the tests we face aren’t big trials, but faithful perseverance.  Maintaining daily discipline of Bible quiet time, exercise, and diligence in homeschooling is not going to be easy, but we will be blessed by it.  I know I might get grief from sisters-in-Christ that I am complaining and being a poor witness.  But this is my blog, and I don’t think I do anyone any favors by being phony-Susie-sunshine.  For SURE there is so much to be grateful for.  And I spend lots of my prayer time thanking God for His provision.  Still, I hate winter.  It is here, again.  And I am not looking forward to it. 

Galatians 6:9
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

I will try to do well.
I will try to smile.
I will try to wear layers.  I hate wearing layers.
I will plan a day for Chuck E. Cheese, and maybe take a drive to Niagara Falls, NY to the aquarium.
But mostly I will suck it up and cross days off on the calendar until mid-April when things get fun around here again.