Cotton ISD 2013-14

Last year I swore up and down that I would NOT start school this early ever again.  Never say never!  I'm up early, can't sleep.  Funny how that doesn't change from when I was a student, when I taught in school and now while I'm schooling my children at home.  With Witten coming on or around November 18, we had to get a head start.  The beautiful thing about homeschooling is that we can stop for a good while and enjoy family life/take time to adjust.  Unlike other years, I have our lessons planned through his potential c-section date.  I remain incredibly thankful for the simplicity of Classical Conversations and how easy it makes our "everything else" of science and social studies.  Here's a quick glimpse into our year.  My goal is to make it as simple as possible.  

One thing I feel that I have not done well is incorporating scripture into our school day.  I want to start by focusing on 2 Peter 1:5-8. 

"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Pastor Danny preached on it and I felt it was really appropriate in this aspect of our lives. While it deals with spiritual maturity, I believe that their education is part of that growth process.  I want them to apply excellence in everything, school time is just practice for what they will eventually do/be later in life. 

Coralee - 3rd grade

Coralee will continue with Saxon Math.  This year is 5/4 for her and I am SO excited!  It feels like real math.  Even in the first few lessons we use the CC memory work about the commutative law.  Yay for that application and more to come.  She has started to love to read (and get in trouble for reading when she's supposed to be asleep).  The Greek Mythology book (how I love the D'Auelieres) and a Little House book are up on a shelf she can't reach because of the not going to sleep issue.  We'll continue to listen to books as we commute.  We started The Hobbit in June but our vacation interrupted that and after a library trip, we're listening to Hank the Cow Dog.  The idea is to have her read a lot of books and listen to things that are above her level.  She will start Essentials at CC this year.  That will take care of our English Grammar/Writing curriculum and hopefully help with some multiplication facts motivation.  I'm really looking forward to our parent orientation in a few weeks to see how to use all these wonderful resources.  We'll be using the same Spelling curriculum as last year but the name has escaped me.  It really is her most difficult subject which baffles me.  Spelling was so easy for me; she takes after her Daddy in this!  We'll also be using English from the Roots Up for vocabulary. I'm excited about it but I'm not sure she is.  Gotta work on those skills for the PSAT.  ;-) Joking although it will be here before I know it!  We'll look at 2 words a week which won't quite get us through the first book this year.  She also has a French book that will be absolute last priority.

Lincoln - Kindergarten

Lincoln, oh my boy!  Last year I let him coast.  He no doubt knows way more than I think he does.  Like his Uncle Keegan, everything is on a need to know basis and I don't need to know.  I didn't push him last year because he's a boy and it was a bigger fight than it should have been.  He is so cute and giggles when he is learning new things and I really think he's ready now.  His behavior and attitude (with the exception of last week - what on earth was that?) has taken a huge turn for the better in the past few months.  We had a coffee date last week and talked about how he wanted to learn to read.  We're going to try Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.  I'm still a little scarred by how Coralee hated it so much but I think that the not a workbook aspect will work well for him.  I'd like to believe that feeling like he had a choice will be a good thing, too.  He'll continue with Horizons K for Math.  As much as I love Saxon, I can't stand the K book.  This is prettier and covers much of the same information.  

Lauramae - Pre-Kindergarten

It remains to be seen how this will go this year but Little Miss has been my most eager student.  Unfortunately, her fine motor skills didn't match up with her desire.  She will be using some workbooks from the dollar spot while I figure out where she is and we'll be attempting Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading as well.  I honestly don't think it will take long for her and Lincoln to be at the same point academically.  She'll start CC this year, which is very exciting for her!  Her tutor is in for a treat!

So, there we are!  I am armed with prayer & scripture this morning and a plan!  May our day be sweet! Oh, and this will be our trial week.  God willing, we will be in Houston next week for our annual trip to the zoo and Shakespeare in the park..... Also known as getting out of dodge during NI week.

 

The Ultimate Beautiful Thing

I have meant to post this for a while but haven't sat down to do it. 2013 has been an interesting one so far. We started the year with me applying to be a Support Manager with Classical Conversations (our homeschool group) and on the same day Ken got an email about an opportunity at work to move to India for two years. It took a month filled with prayers before we had the "no" on that but what a month it was. I don't know if I've ever prayed so much and so intently for anything. The Sunday before he got that email, our pastor leaked that our church would be adopting an unengaged, unreached people group. When Ken mentioned the position to me, there wasn't a question about whether or not we were interested since the group was nearby. There were more people applied than normally would. Some were above Ken's level of management but I was convinced that if God wanted us in India, we would be going. Here are some of the verses I prayed:

Proverbs 3:4
So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God & man.

Psalm 90:16
And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of The Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands-- yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it.

1 Samuel 16:7
God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outer appearance but God looks at the heart.

Matthew 5:16
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Zechariah 4:6
Not by might nor by power but by My spirit says The Lord.

Job 42:2
Job answered the Lord and said, "I know that You can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

Philippians 1:6
And I am certain that God, who began the good work in you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Ultimately the answer was "no". Poof and my dreams of serving God in another country while being able to still live reasonably comfortably, living somewhere else for a short time and truly experiencing new and different, having someone else clean the house,.... were gone. In that "no", God was so sweet and good to us, though. This clearly was not our time to be anywhere else but where we are.

Not long after that, Ken found out for sure that he was taking a business trip to Shanghai in March. Let me admit that I am a complete and total wimp when it comes to being away from my husband. I also didn't look forward to being "on" all by myself for most of a week. It's actually embarrassing. It took a lot of thinking to realize I was jealous. We love to travel and I was jealous he got to see/eat new things while I was at home with the kids by myself. Not pretty but thankfully we were able to talk through a lot of things thanks to the good stuff from him teaching Intimate Encounters. In the end, my support manager training in Virginia was the same week. Our parents graciously took care of the kids and his parents brought them back which was a big relief for me. And yet, I was still a mess. I cried; I didn't sleep well. The two together probably didn't help any. Still, I would say that separation and the preparation for it was one of the sweetest and most intimate times in our marriage.

While I was gone, I started wondering if I might be pregnant. All those really normal cycles I'd been having didn't happen in February/March and that's the pattern for my pregnancies with everyone else. I had bought two tests before I left. Took one the Monday before I left for training and it was negative. The next Monday, I woke up at 2 AM and took the other test. I've always hidden that ordeal from Ken and just told him when I had a plus but in light of all that had gone on in the month before, I shared the moment. There were two definite pink lines although the important one wasn't all that dark. That began the frequent blood work since my progesterone is always low. The day I went in for my first ultrasound to check for the heartbeat, Ken had a big presentation to give at almost the same time so he wasn't able to be there. Thankfully, the ultrasound was with my favorite nurse practitioner, Kelly, who was there with a good bit of our infertility treatments. We worked through my cycle and had a pretty good idea of how far along I was before she did the scan and there was baby, measuring right where he/she should be.

If you would've asked me in high school how many kids I wanted, I would have said 4. I loved the family dynamic of my Mom's family but really I think it was more who my aunts & uncles are. They're just fun! I didn't know that wasn't always the case. Those 4 years of trying to get pregnant with Coralee didn't take away that desire but it did temper me saying a number. It is very strange that 13 years after stopping birth control, dealing with infertility treatments, then waiting on God's timing for subsequent kiddos to have that intense desire fulfilled. Truly my fears have been stilled and strivings cease. I am thankful, humbled and awed because God could have chosen to leave that desire unfulfilled. I would look at Lauramae and think, really, this is not a bad way to end. In the past few months, I felt like I needed to get rid of a good bit of our baby stuff. It was almost an idol sitting in the storage building. To truly release control of having another child, it had to go. I saved a good bit with the intent of making a quilt from their baby clothes and saved a ton of blankets to pass on to them one day.

Lincoln initially said he wanted twins.... A boy and a girl. Now that we know there's just one, he wants a brother. Balance is good but a little scary for me, too. He still rocks my world with his boyness sometimes. Lauramae wants a sister. Coralee is far more flexible because she can logically see a good reason for a brother for Lincoln. All I have to go on is that I don't like the boy name we've discussed (Witten - my grandmother's maiden name) and I love the girl name (Annmarie - my Mom's middle name and mine). We've never agreed on the wrong name.

To turn things back around, I see that while my prayers for Ken at work weren't fulfilled the way I thought they should be but they were answered indeed. Maybe there will be another opportunity to go another day, another place. For now, I'm glad to be at home. Ken's brother & sister in law are expecting in September, my sister & brother in law are expecting in the end of October and we're due in early December. I prayed that my sister and I would be pregnant together so yet another answered prayer. What fun these cousins will have together!