It's MyHero's and My Anniversary!

Nineteen years ago, my beloved and I became one! Even though we have had our trials just like any marriage does, I wouldn't trade those nineteen years for anything! Our love has only grown stronger as we walked through those struggles together and with Jesus Chist leading us.

We had a very difficult time having children in the beginning. In fact it took us 4 years to conceive our first born. I firmly believe that God opened my womb after I completely surrendered my fertility to HIM. After having three babies in quick succesion, I yanked back control of my fertility. I do regret doing that, but know that God is bigger than even that. If He really wanted me to have more children He could easily have circumvented the preventive measures we had taken as humans.

Our children have grown and filled my days with homeschool math and other homeschool curricula. We always knew as a couple that we would homeschool our kids. It was never an option to do anything else in our minds. Even before we ever had kids.

One of the biggest challenges we faced was dealing with a child who has Asperger's Syndrome. It actually helped to finally get a diagnosis for this in addition to his ADHD. Learning about his disability opened my eyes to realize that I have the same thing. This has helped us to understand why some of our other struggles have always been a part of our marriage.

Through it all, God has been faithful! I have no doubt that He will continue to be faithful as we muddle our way through our kid's teen years and into eventually, should the Lord choose to tarry, becoming grandparents.

So Much to be Thankful For!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have SO much to be thankful for!! I could seriously go on and on and on and I know you could too. One of the things I'm especially thankful for at the moment is that I DON'T have to do any cooking for tomorrow! I'm letting Bob Evans do all my cooking for me. MyHero is going to be picking up our meal today and then all we have to do is reheat everything tomorrow.

So I'm looking forward to a day of relaxing and crocheting!! That will be good since I have a TON of crochet orders to get done! Yep! People actually pay me to do something that I love and would be doing anyway!! Yet another thing to be thankful for!

We are "babysitting" our neighbor's dog while they are out of town. This is going to be quite interesting since our dog is scared of their dog. She is bigger than him although not much taller. Segmenting them should not be too hard though since their dog has her porter here to stay in. It is still going to be quite the adventure. It may turn out to be fuel for great homeschool fiction since my daughter loves to write!

Learning the Joys of Delayed Gratification

RoboBoy's birthday was back in July. He scored around $40 in cash and wanted to get a video game. So I took him to Game Stop. We scoured the shelves but he couldn't find any games that he really wanted. So we decided to ask at the front counter for any recommendations for 11 year olds. They informed us that Scribblenauts Unlimited was ready for pre-order and would be released in November. 

RoboBoy LOVED Scribblenauts and had been reading up about all the new features available in Unlimited. It only took a few minutes of debating for him to decide to plop down his $5 pre-order payment with the understanding that he would not be getting his game for another 4 months, AND that he would need to save his money to cover his game when it did come out.

Fast forward 4 months. Yesterday, Scribblenauts Unlimited hit the stores so daddy took RoboBoy to pick up his game. He still had all his money saved along with the pre-order receipt! I know some adults who couldn't have accomplished that! One of my friends said, "I AM an adult who couldn't have done that!" It was so good to see RoboBoy enjoying the fruits of delayed gratification. 

I'm quite certain that this situation is what prompted MyHero to make the proclamation that he did to the kids this morning before I woke up. Apparently he told the kids that they needed to get their schoolwork done before he got home tonight. How do 11 through 14 year olds interpret a mandate like this?? What they heard was, "You can play all day, as long as you get your schoolwork done before I get home." Maybe he did actually say that to them. Like I said, I was still in bed.

So I got up this morning to find all three kids playing! One on the 3DS and two on the computers. Oy!! I guess RoboBoy still has a lot to learn about delayed gratification as do his siblings. I really don't think this is what they had in mind when they coined the phrase eclectic homeschooling! At least RoboBoy is learning with the puzzle games on Scribblenauts Unlimited! It's helping him to build his vocabulary and discover how to use adjectives. He is also developing his creative thinking, although I think he already does this pretty well!

I have decided not to stress myself over making my kids do school today. If they don't do it, then they will suffer the consequences. Perhaps this little experiment will teach them all that it is better to delay gratification until after you have fulfilled your responsibilities. One can always hope!

Finally, Some Cooler Weather!!

We are finally getting some much needed cooler weather here in Florida! The reason I say much needed, is because last winter was too mild here to kill all our multitudinous bugs! As a result we had almost an overpopulation of them this past summer! Eeeek! Can you tell that I hate bugs? So I'm sitting here with my socks on to keep my feet warm, wearing a pair of shorts and t-shirt. ONLY in Florida! lol

I've had to put a halt to my running for a bit. Since my last race, my left foot has been quite painful to walk on. I did try to run a couple of times in spite of the pain, but then realized that I could only be injuring it more. I have a bunion on my left foot, inherited from my dear mother. Running has not done it any favors. I had high hopes that my running would have no effect on it, but I really should have known better. 

So as I'm recovering from this injury, I have a couple of aids to help my bunion calm down. The first one looks and sounds quite silly, but the principle behind it seemed sound so I decided to give it a try.

It's a contraption called Yoga Toes.

It is supposed to stretch the muscles in your feet. The idea is that if you recondition the muscles around the bunion, it will help it to heal and the bones to go back to the position they are supposed to stay in.

The second is as much for maintenance of my bunion as for helping it to settle down. They are a pair of special bunion socks which have a divider sewn in between the big and second toes.

I slept in these last night and have hopes that they will also help retrain those bones to stay where they should. I plan to use these for running in as well. May need to get another pair or two of these. 

We had the privilege on Friday of having my dear friend's 4 year old boy with us for a few hours. It was so cute how he wanted to spend the time playing all the "big kid" games on our gaming system. I wanted to spend some time doing phonics games with him, but he would not be torn away from the "car game". Guess I'll have to leave his early child education to his mom. I know she would have appreciated any little bit of input I could have added.

Our Accidental Field Trip!

We had a busy weekend as a family! Sound familiar? We launched the weekend on Saturday by going to a Pumpkin Festival at a local farm. The kids had fun feeding the animals in the petting zoo. We walked past lots of booths challenging us to try our skill at the ring toss and many other such games. There was a guy who was making carvings using a chainsaw. 

Then we got to the crafty type booths. There were three "booths" set together that caught my attention and I made a bee line to them. The first was one where a couple were working cotton together. He was "carding" cotton using a cotton gin while she was spinning the cotton into yarn. We stopped and talked with them for a few minutes about the tools and techniques they were using.

Then we walked over to the next booth where the guy was a leather worker. He had a bunch of hides which he had tanned. Most of them seemed to be deer hides but there was also a buffalo. He explained to us how the process of tanning works.

Next we walked over to talk to a guy who had a bunch of old guns and sabers on display. Most of these were from the Civil War era. We stood and talked with him for probably over an hour. I could have talked with him for many more hours! This guy was just SO fascinating! 

He explained and showed us the difference between a flint lock and a percussion style rifle while lacing his narrative with details of how the soldiers fought and the wars in which each style rifle was used. My kids got to hold some of the guns and sabers and even had their pictures taken holding them. This is the kind of learning that will stick in their minds forever and in homeschooling that's what it's all about!

When we got home, MyHero and ManBoy went back out to get pumpkins and then the kids got to work carving them. This is the first time my kids have ever carved pumpkins so they had a LOT of fun doing it!

We all got up super early the next morning and headed out for my race! Yep, I ran my 2nd 5k on Sunday! Since this was a Halloween themed race lots of the racers were dressed in costumes. I met up with a few other people from my running team but most of them were serving as volunteers for the Half Marathon portion of the race. When the race started and we all started moving forward, I found it extremely difficult to keep myself from wanting to keep up with everyone else. As a result, I pushed myself too hard and eventually realized that if I kept going at that pace, I wouldn't be able to finish the race. They would have had to send someone out to rescue me! LOL I DID finish the race and even half ran, half limped across the finish line. 

We are trying to get back into our normal routine for the rest of the week. As usual, I'll probably at some point find Fashionista sitting at the computer working on one of her many stories. I really should get her set up with a writing tutor and take advantage of all this writing she's been wanting to do all on her own!

Life is Interesting!

Life just stays interesting, doesn't it?? Hopefully I'm learning from my many mistakes and getting better about having a balanced approach to life and working out!

I have another race coming up this weekend. I really wish that I'd read the information more carefully. I thought I'd signed up for a Saturday race. Turns out it is on a Sunday. Bummer! We will have to miss church. Don't like having to do that. There will be other team members at the race which means that they will also be missing church. Technically, we could attend on Saturday night and therefore still get to see the service.

I'm feeling totally unprepared for this race. But if I really think about it, I'm actually better prepared for this one than I was for the last one! So it will be interesting to see how things go! Pictures to follow next week!

Have you ever heard one of your kids use a word in the correct context and wonder to yourself, "Where in the world did they learn THAT word??" It seems that I'm constantly doing that with my kids. Maybe they are playing vocabulary match when we are not watching! It's too bad we can't include these times in their homeschool portfolios!

Balance Needed!!!

I'm in need of some balance here! I have a tendency to go overboard. For instance, this week I've already burned 1431 calories and I haven't worked out today! My friend and personal fitness coach reminded me that my body is a living organism, not a machine. My body is reminding me of this fact as well! Last night I was having severe leg cramps in both legs. Seriously, they reminded me of being in labor! Yeah, I think it's time to pull back and find some balance.

So I'm taking it easy today. My kids are helping me to get this house clean since we are supposed to have a houseful of friends here tonight. I'm thinking as far as school goes today, this is a great day to have my kids play free games. We might even watch an educational video or two.