Mommy Dates – Part Deux

October 19, 2014 | Stacy

Nigel was next up for a Mommy Date. We stopped by the mall and visited Collector’s Paradise to look at the sporting memorabilia. From there we looked for somewhere to eat. We thought we might like to try Five Guys, a burger shop we’d heard about. Two steps in the door and my brain started to process what all those cardboard boxes with allergy warnings were… boxes FULL of PEANUTS. He picked up on it just as quickly as I, and we slowly backed out the door. We rubbed our shoes on the ground as we headed back to the car. Our appetites would not have been very good as we worried about what peanut dust we might wear back into our house…

He then chose T.G.I.F. I hadn’t eaten in one in close to 20 years. While we had a nice meal, I didn’t think the place was anything special. What WAS special was getting to visit with my 12-year-old son. Oh – his words just revealed a joyfulness in his heart that I often don’t see while doing language arts or mathematics. It was grand to have that talking time.

Two days later, I had to take the boys to Henrietta to meet their Spanish teacher at the library. While they were doing their class I took Johanna to Target for our Mommy Date. Imagine her glee as I did not rush her through the toy aisles! She was able to linger on each of the pink rows, touching, studying, and, um, yeah, desiring every princess and dolly and animal they had to sell. She chose to wear her Easter dress, which she called her Aurora dress. But she couldn’t find her sandals, and thus donned her sneakers. I kept calling her Sneaker Princess. She kept correcting me.

Before we left the house, I had told her we could get a slushie and some popcorn. Yet, as we were waiting there I saw these rice cereal treats on a stick. Covered with chocolate. And sprinkles. Offering her one of those yielded a gasp of elation I hope to remember forever. She pointed out I had said popcorn, too. OK. I have to eat something anyway, right?

I’m not one to avoid sugar…

You won’t see any photos from a date with Stewart. See – DADDY got to take him out Thursday. They went to the optometrist and then to Olive Garden. And then Friendly’s. But they don’t think like bloggers and we have no pictures to share. Hmmmm.

Mommy Dates

October 11, 2014 | Stacy

I was blessed this week to have not one, but TWO “Mommy Dates”. What’s a Mommy Date? A special block of time set aside for one of my beautiful children to spend some out-and-alone-time with their very honored Mama.

Mommy Dates are very important to me. I get to spend all day every day with my dear children. However, much (MUCH) of our time together is highly structured and school-focused. We also operate with a pretty detailed chore chart. And, frankly, the kids have a lot of responsibility in keeping the house running smoothly. And Mama… well, she is the pretty anxious sort. I’m always consulting the clock. I feel like I am always racing that clock, trying to get -more math, -more English, -more geography, -more poetry in before –lunch, –dinner, –piano, –nap. The kids and I get to chat all day long. Our home is filled day in and day out with the joyful (and not so joyful) banter of siblings. We get lots of conversations sailing around the house and thoughts and ideas are bounced around from dawn til dusk. Yes, we get lots of chatter and laughter. And I love that about our homeschool-life. But we don’t always get to TALK.

Mommy dates allow me to talk one-on-one with my kids. And I love them. LOVE THEM.

Sunday I got a Mommy Date with my Marie. We needed to go shopping for some fall clothes and then we grabbed dinner at Panera.
Tuesday, Tabitha and I squeezed in a mini-Mommy Date. We just did dessert at Panera after a quick visit to Target.

Next up is Nigel. He’d like to visit Collector’s Paradise at the mall, and I’m hoping he’ll go for some food court food. I love food court Chinese.

But Panera would be fine, too.

Busy girl…

September 30, 2014 | Stacy

Hi.

I’m a busy girl.

I’m pretty tall for my age.

Sometimes I see something pretty cool on the table, or the piano, or a shelf, and I climb to get it.

I fall.

A lot.

I love to play outside.

I hurry to find my shoes when it looks like someone, anyone, might be willing to take me out with them. I call footwear, both socks & shoes, “ocks”. My family knows what I mean.

I like to teethe on peppers and green beans. Daddy grows them ‘specially for me. Molars hurt.

I’m Ducky. And I’m not afraid of dirt.

Wanna play?

Yum. Groceries!

September 29, 2014 | Stacy

I make five week dinner menus. I generate three shopping lists from the meal calendar and then go to ALDI, Wegmans & Wal•Mart to get everything we need.

There are still regular runs to Wal•Mart for milk, bananas & bread; but this system works really well for us.

I try to do this shopping solo, but have done it with helpers.

I do get a lot of looks as I navigate the aisles at ALDI. I admit that secretly enjoy the pointing and whispering. I’m rarely asked about it, but some folks make eye contact and smile & chuckle.

The first picture was August 30 for our 8/31 – 10/4 calendar.

This next one was today for our 10/5 – 11/8 plan. (I’m a bit ahead because we have a busy week ahead.

I am so grateful for my family. And for how generously the LORD provides for us. I still need to run to Wal•Mart & Wegmans for the month. But those carts are nowhere near as impressive.

Nan to the rescue…

September 17, 2014 | Stacy

I’ve never had much help in the way of homeschooling. Basically, unless John had some random day off, it has been all-mom-all-the-time for our 10 years of homeschooling. And – by the grace of God – we’ve managed. We employ schedules and stick to them. The kids do lots of chores and watch the littler ones as the older ones have rotated through their school time with Mom. This year, however, thinks aren’t quite as neat as they’ve been in the past. Katriel is a busier climber-type baby than Johanna was. The two boys have too much work to spend much time watching little sisters. Tabitha is too close in age to Johanna for Johanna to genuinely see her as an authority.

But – then came Nan!

Nan retired in April and has been volunteering at Dayspring Academy Preschool and Child Care Center. Or something like that. In the 17 days we’ve had of school so far this year, she has been over 9 or 10 mornings! And we’ve needed it. She plays cards with Hanny, plays dishes with Katriel, brings over toys from her house, and takes them outside.

To all this we say THANK YOU and PRAISE THE LORD.

Now – Nan wants/(needs) to get a part-time job one of these days. And too much time in this chaos might not be good for her health… But for as long as she is interested and able we will take her up on her generous offer! The girls are having a blast, too, I might add. 🙂

Worn

September 13, 2014 | Stacy

Homeschool happens

August 31, 2014 | Stacy

here

(my bedroom)

and here (dining room)

and here (living room)

and here (Katriel’s room).

With four bigger kids (grades 9, 7, 5, & 3), a preschooler, and a resident messer – school has to be creative.

We had our first experience in dispersing in 2011 when Johanna was one. One year olds are hard to contain and hard to ignore. When Johanna was one-something, we took school to my bedroom. We did our language and reading on my bed. And that coziness led to a tailbone injury for me. So then we got a table in my room.

We decided to SKIP the tailbone injury this time and go straight to the ugly-table mode. This allows the youngest member of our family to continue her exploring and playing on the entire first floor. Whichever sister is available keeps a general eye out for her. Or in the case of a few days this week, her adoring Nan keeps her safe.

New this year are some preschool items for Johanna. She LOVES her “school” time (a/k/a dedicated Mommy-time). Mrs. Soanes from church blessed us with some Bible-based teaching tools and we are loving them.

John and Stewart have been meeting at 5:30 A.M. to do biology. John is not a biology expert or anything, but he’s a great dad. The idea behind getting Stewart up so early is to ensure him more quiet time for his studies, and the chance to work on some higher level work with the support of his father. Dad also introduced him to the joy of coffee. He likes it. (I’m not a coffee drinker.) Stewart’s attitude has been STELLAR. Just fantastic. He’s also working on Algebra this year (started in July) and is doing well. Math was his worst subject in the primary grades and he has grown to not only tolerate it, but also master it.

Speaking of good attitudes, Nigel has the “Bathroom Zone” as his six month zone for cleaning. A week or so ago, he and I put aside about 45 minutes so that I could instruct him in what I wanted to see accomplished in each room. He has accepted this chore with not just resignation, but with complete ownership of the expectations. Frankly, the bathrooms have not been this clean in a few years. And – he commented that it might even be fun to be a janitor. I concur. And if God calls him to that job someday I would be glad to know he did it to serve the Lord. (He’s been setting a great example!)

I did buy a new tote and move some faux plants to make our bedroom workspace less congested. This is SO ironic, too. See, I’m picking up some extra hours this fall so that we can hopefully buy a new carpet for our bedroom early next year. I want to throw out our holey bedspread (we’ve already turned it over and are using the back side of it) and use the beautiful one I bought 8 years ago before we moved that has been in a closet all this time because it clashes SO much. So – the idea of “sprucing up” our master bedroom amidst language arts, mathematics, and the like is sort of comical. 🙂 And something other homeschool families can understand I am sure.

Stewart has had a table in the boys’ bedroom two years now. Nigel now is using the table I set up in Katriel’s room. Marie does most of her school work in the evening before it is due. And Tabitha does some of hers in the morning in different places, and most of it one-on-one with me while Katriel naps.

We flex. We bend. But with God – we will not break.

Can I get an Amen?

we went for ice cream the night before school started…

August 24, 2014 | Stacy

Bummer. Summer.

August 24, 2014 | Stacy

I’m not proud of this post. I don’t mean to sound all complainy. But this summer… never arrived.

Oh – after such a LONG, COLD, UGLY winter – I had major PLANS to enjoy this summer. I carefully restricted my working to just one eight hour shift on the same night each week. By doing this, we reasoned, we could plan for regular opportunities to have guests over for fellowship. I envisioned lovely gatherings, cooking out & enjoying the pool.

There were flaws in this plan. But how could I have known?

First of all – SUMMER NEVER ARRIVED. The calendar may have said June, July, and August, but it felt like April stalled and September came early. Temps were cool and it rained a LOT.

Secondly – John’s efforts to complete the pool deck moved much more slowly than he could have imagined. I can’t tell you how many times he planned to pull out the air compressor, saw, etc., just to see the rain clouds roll in. And although almost every weekend WAS delightfully rain-free (thank you, Jesus), our weekends included events such as: lawn tractor dying (which necessitated us PUSH mowing major sections); van stalling in Victor (which necessitated us having it towed to Fairport & starter being replaced); computer dying (which anyone who owns a computer knows can suck hours of your time in fixing); & windshield cracking (making us a one vehicle family for a few days).

Having the unfinished pool deck was a big problem. Not just because it didn’t look nice, but because it was a HUGE SAFETY ISSUE. I nicknamed it the death-trap and couldn’t let the younger kids play outside without me out there as well.

Finally – with it pouring rain so many week days, much of our yard work got pushed to the weekends. This kept me from reaching out and making plans with people, knowing we would be spending that time maintaining the yard.

There are other disappointments, as well. I never had time to paint the powder room. I didn’t get the kids’ memory boxes sorted out. And a handful of other, “I’ll do it in the summer” projects I had shelved during our busy school year. (I’m lucky to get groceries in the school year.)

I also found this summer Extremely Stressful in planning for high school. Transcripts, Literature Programs, Credit Hours, and Units. Microscopes, The Screwtape Letter, Logic texts, and Economics.

Medically I also dealt with low blood pressure and debilitating fatigue. I won’t pour out dull details.

All this to say: summer did not prove to be a time of refreshment and restoration. In fact, I’m almost ready to start the school year just because I’m tired of waiting for Summer Fun to come. She’s late to the party.

Thankfully, I don’t have to put my hope in summer. While I DO enjoy the reprieve it’s supposed to bring, it’s not the place I put my Real Hope.