dance

Today.   Full of joy.   Busy, but full of joy.  This morning I went to bible study with the kids- at first I was skeptical about it, but it's a chance for them to be social and my eyes seem more open for chances to involve them with other kids.  I suppose it's a win-win. :)   We got home, made lunch, put Ella to bed, and started homeschooling.  I let Maddy stay up in hopes that she would behave. After a couple of threats of sending her to nap, she calmed down and even listened in. I have been working on putting summer clothes away and there was a huge mess in their room with clothes neatly folded, but all over the floor and in baskets. I knew it should get cleaned up soon or I would regret it later! I worked on that for a good 20 minutes and before we knew it, we were rushing out the door to dance class. It never fails, we were running late again.  After finally getting to the school and parking on the total opposite side, we were in the room and I watched in excitement and clicked away on my camera, fighting Ella who was very curious. I'm so very excited for them in the upcoming months....what a great experience and opportunity for them!

a calling

Yes.  We started homeschooling.   Why?  People ask that when I tell them.  One said "Interesting".  One person even said, "How do you make time to home school?"   Easy.   Homeschooling is THE priority.  And if you have time to spend with your kids, you have time to home school!

I can think of many reasons why we want to home school, but for now I'll list the main reasons.  Kindergarten.  It's too long.  Five days a week, and every day, all day Kindergarten.  The day before she started I was desperately looking into finding a three day kindergarten for her.  I did find one, but it was also 30 minutes away.  I couldn't commit to two whole hours in the car, especially with a small baby and winters in Minnesota. So, we gave it enough time to make a decision, which happened to be just three or four days.  It helped that Kate (along with probably every kindergartener) was overstimulated and cried about why she had to go every day.

The second reason, which should  be the first reason, was a calling from God. I had been called two years ago only to give in to Satan's lies of inadequacy.   I've learned that every mom has those same thoughts and was encouraged that my love for Kate would drive me to provide the best education for her. Even if it meant stretching me.  How can  you ignore such a calling?

After much, much prayer,( like every hour of the day ) we felt at peace with scripture that jumped out at us, or things we saw/heard.  This is what popped up the Friday we took her out of school:

"Opportunities are always lost when we let fear overrule our faith. When God calls you to a task beyond your abilities, instead of giving in to your feelings, choose to rely on what you know about Him and His promises. By moving forward in faith despite your inadequacy, you will discover the Lord's faithfulness. He always empowers us for the works He assigns."

- Encouraging words this morning from Dr. Charles Stanley

Coincidence?  No. Some people just won't understand. Some will have their opinions. Yet I am trusting in God this season to sustain me and bring me through it.  The teaching part is fun.  I get to read and teach my kids.  What better joy is there than that? What better joy to be able to teach the girls about life and how to live it here at home?  Today they learned about trusting God.  But it also means working long hours on everything else and literally running around the house at times to get things done a little faster! :)  I think honestly one reason why I was unable to breastfeed was that when I'm pumping, at least I get to sit!

And the third reason explains it well in this link under the "1. When & why did you initially decide to home school?" section under all the photos; the very first paragraph.

Though I've only had a week at it, it will take some time to get a good routine down. Obviously the perfect situation is to do it during Ella and Maddy's nap time... but that doesn't always work. I have to work around hours of pumping and feeding, preparing meals, tantrums, tiredness, harvest and giggling and wild girls. I don't know where God will bring us with this.  Maybe it's just kindergarten. Maybe it's first and second grade, too.  I just know that we are taking it one year at a time.

 it is the best thing for our family right now.

lemonade stand

We had our first lemonade stand yesterday. The girls woke up so very excited... who knew having a lemonade stand would be so much work? Getting it all ready by 11am was a little challenging, being i had to pump and feed ella twice. I made a paper gingham banner that morning and had to run home to refill the lemonade. We sold lots of cookies, too that we made the day before. Overall?

  200% success.

Mish Mash of things

Lots of pictures to post. Here are the Easter dresses I bought for the kids. I love them! I couldnt get one of Kate really, she was running around.

The girls have had quite the interest in playing upstairs. I am currently busy cleaning up there.... throwing away old and broken toys, ripped books, and all junk that I have accumulated over the years. It is still a mess up there, but it will get better hopefully sooner than later.  I am working on revamping my scrapbooking room and will take pictures soon. Here are pictures of Kate's new fun activity: sliding down the stairs (supervised of course)

and maddy loves to climb everything..

Since we do make a lot of home-made things.. kate has had an interest in helping mix (her favorite book is "Froggy Bakes a Cake"-- she can say all pages by memory! We've been experimenting with pizzas lately. I found this really good dough recipe and thought we'd try new toppings as well. One is bbq chicken (really good!) Egg and Bacon (ok) and Brie, apple, and canadian bacon. The other two are just pepperoni and Hawaiian.

And my personal favorite, supreme with broccoli!!! Even peter liked it! This is just on a peice of french bread though.

The last 3 are just some other sweet pictures.  Til later! PS  I will probably be making a short post in the next day or two but I have to take the pictures first.