But I can blog this

First go check out Courtney's post then find out where that rabbit trail led us.

10,000 Hearts

Justinbustin has had a very stinkin' attitude this last week and it hit it's peak last night. I was so fed up I put him to bed without our usual prayers and hugs. This morning he wakes up and we talked about me or Daddy doing something with him and he says he'd rather have Daddy do it because I hate him. I let him know that I don't hate him, his attitude made me not like him very much but I always love him. Later I wrapped him in my arms and told him how I love him with my whole heart. He says, "You have 10,000 hearts." then he says, "You love God with 999 of them and you love your family and everyone else with one." I told him I don't think God minds that I love my family with those 999 hearts too.

Looking Back

Maybe there's a moral to the story of Lot's wife looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah and turning into a pillar of salt. I'm not sure what it is. I was reading my first posts for a moment and got lost back in the feeling of everything being hunky dory. You can see in the first few posts of us being in California how screwed up that vision and that sureness I had in my life got. I don't argue I've learnt a million things. But somehow my perception of reality is skewed. I feel like everything is owed to me and I don't owe nothing to nobody. The problem is I'm hanging onto the reality of that's what it should be, I deserve to live in California near family and not have it affect the way I live my life and the way my husband and my relationship is. All of a sudden living in Texas is too high a cost to pay. I want to have fun! Be around friends and hang out. Not have to worry about how my choices and attitudes are affecting how two little boys grow up into men. Can you have a midlife crisis at 25? Throw enough hoops into the mix and I'm sure it's possible cause I sure feel the world spinning right now.

Bouncey Fun

Today was Welcome Back Sunday at our church and our class helped out instead of doing Sunday School. We got there about twenty minutes late and sat down with friends who were eating lunch before we got called to be replacement people at the First Connection table for Squishy's Mom and Dad (the baby whose home birth I was at). They sat down to eat lunch and I took Squishy because he was too cute and I couldn't resist. I watched him for their anniversary on Thursday and we had the best time talking and laughing and jumping around. He had his little arm up in the air and was doing it with me.


Any way they had bounce houses, Pokey Joe's BBQ (yum!!), snow cones. It was fun seeing everybody in our Sunday School in random places - at the tables, bouncing in the bounce houses, waiting at the bottom of the slide. One of my good friends has a cute story to tell me about my kiddo. Both of them ran free the whole time we were there in their huge courtyard. We stopped by Whole Foods for groceries and came home. Brando took the kids to the pool and I printed and figured out our school for the week then joined them and got my hair wet for the FIRST TIME in the pool this summer. Bad, I know. Who likes looking like a wet raccoon? Not me. I wasn't going to join them but I'm glad I did. Made for a perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Moving into routines

Sometimes I feel SO mean. Sometimes it would be easier to have them in school full time. I'd have all day to make my house pretty, bake cookies, and not get so frustrated when they got home, you know that whole Stepford wife routine.

Brando says I always have to have things perfect or else I feel like it's the end of the world. Probably that whole control thing again. *sigh*

We're watching Napolean Dynamite where Napolean does the skit for president by dancing to disco music when the music until then has been slow. That was great. Brando doesn't see the point of the movie but I thought it was cute in an underdog root for the loser sort of way. That and I needed to laugh at something stupid.

We went to Chipotle for dinner and had margie's and beer and had chocolate covered strawberry ice cream at home after the kiddos went to bed. I think I'm PMSing.

Veritas Curriculums

Spell to Write and Read is their language arts program. I have only heard good things about it and attended the training program on it. I am so excited about how it teaches! Singapore Math develops the mental math. I did that with Justinbustin this last year and I can't believe how much more intrigued in Math I am!! I used to think I was not good at math at all. Now I can come up with things faster than my hubby (sometimes : ) and love it. This was all just by doing it with J. That is one of the beauties of working with your own kids, you rediscover and discover new stuff with them. They learn to love it and love learning more because they feed off your desire to learn and your love of it!

The School Year Starts

The first week of school is over and I am SO excited about the whole week and the rest of the year!! The first week went REALLY well. Having everything laid out for me made things much easier than homeschooling.

Knowing more than 1000 hours went into the research of the curriculum and being aware enough to know they really did pick the top curriculums available gives me such a peace of mind. They broaden the curriculum with SO much outside resources which is more amazing. They want to make sure the kids are seeing things from not one author's perspective, but many.

Courtney asked how we're still able to homeschool AND attend school. The school is a University Model School. They are set up like a college. They have core courses which are the Language Arts & History core course and the Math & Science core course. They have electives including PE, Spanish, Music, Art, Drama. They do their classes on Tuesday and Thursday and assign school to do at home on Monday and Wednesday. Friday is a flex day to be able to do extra work if desired or take additional electives.

J is taking Math & Science, Music, and Beginning Guitar. He is on the wait list to take the classes for Language Arts and History. In the meantime I am doing the classroom lesson plans on Mondays and Wednesdays at home along with the Math/Science assigned work and the assigned work of LA/History on the days he goes in to school.

It's gone wonderfully! He enjoyed his first and second day of classes. I asked him how he liked his first day at home and he said, "I LOVEd it."

Apples for Oranges

An apple is an apple with apple qualities and an orange is an orange with orange qualities.

A little vent... I am SICK of having to defend that we

used

to exclusively homeschool. You guys and the friends I have here have been so wonderfully supportive, I think I took it for granted. Some of my OLDest friends and my OWN sisters have not been so encouraging. I was thinking about why it irritated and stressed me out so much and came to the conclusion that I wanted to control their thinking. Well I can't. So why stress about it?

Instead I thought of a good one or two liner when they imply that they're soooo glad he'll be going to school and try to convince me his needs weren't being met previously. "As a parent knowing your child better than anyone else would you do what is absolutely the best for your child?" "That's exactly what I have done and

continue

to do." I never stopped!!!!!!! As a parent can anyone argue that? Seriously I'm doing the best for my children that THEY need, and you're doing the best for what YOUR children need. I'm not telling you what you're doing isn't what you should be doing, so please don't tell me that what I'm doing and have done isn't what I should be doing.

People have NO clue how much homeschooling has inspired Justinbustin to be the man that he is. They have no idea what creates the lump in my throat as I type this. You know the struggles that I have gone through, the struggles that I continue to go through. The struggles HE has gone through and how he has so amazingly come through all of them. Even his speech therapist who is qualified beyond expectation says that the reason he has the confidence he has today is BECAUSE we homeschooled him. So don't tell me that I have EVER done him wrong in that way in the past.

This child has compassion beyond the normal years of his life. He holds babies, feed them bottles, burps them, and kisses them on their forehead. He is by their side when they start to get fussy comforting them. His friend he attached to immediately in the fundamentals class has had challenges of his own during his life. The compassion they have for each other and the obliviousness to differences in human beings is priceless. I have more compassion because of all that we have gone through, but I

wish

had as much compassion as my seven year old boy. I KNOW that being in school with other children not so familar with the hardships of life would've been only a scar and not a development into the mature little man in front of me today.