Valentines, snow, skating, and getting old

Here's the only picture from my birthday. I toted the camera around that day thinking I might capture a few photos to forever remember the last time I turned a year older, seeing as I don't plan to get any older on my next birthday. Wait, I said that last year.
The nice folks at Papa's Pizza sent me a free buffet coupon for my birthday as they had James, so we went there for lunch. It also happened to be a Thursday night, so we had dinner at Rebecca's (where this picture of Amelia and Rebecca's dog Lily Belle was taken), and she gifted me with a flowering plant that had a "Sweet Sixteen" balloon in it.

I can remember my actual sixteenth birthday quite well, a (gasp) BOY/GIRL party where we played Ping Pong and hung out in the unfinished den addition my dad had been working on for over a year. I got up the nerve to ask a boy I had had a crush on since the first day of school to come to my party and he did. When he drove up in his brand new Beretta (he had turned 16 the month before so naturally his parents bought him a brand new car), I was nevous and giddy. That was the beginning of an eternal flame that was to last for FIVE WHOLE MONTHS! In the 10th grade this is a record. I believe my parents prayed him out of my life, as his parents didn't think letting him stay out all night as a 16 year old was a bad idea. I think they also thought the 18 inch woofers installed in the trunk of his car soon after he got it were a bit over the top. (So did I, but I never would have admitted it. This was TRUE LOVE, and some foolishness can be overlooked for the sake of it.)

So anyway, earlier in the month Ruth came over to spend the night with Amelia, she sassed me, and this is what happened to her.

Actually she asked me if she could have a whole apple at lunch to see if her loose tooth would come out, but I had already cut it up. So I offered her a carrot, which she ate with no problem. It was the rock hard brownie out of the Easy Bake Oven that finished it off.

The Friday before Valentine's Day James and I went to the Valentine's Dinner at church. The comedian who was the feature of the evening had his flight cancelled due to weather up north, so they got a last minute stand in. It was also snowing in Georgia, but there was a good turn out anyway. We sat with several friends from our Sunday School class, and got pictures of only our across the table friends.

Curtis and Jenny, Ruth's parents.

The comedian mentioned that he and his wife each had a candle on their side of the bed, which they would light to signal when the mood was right, if you know what I mean. He said it just occured to him that he had been through 15 candles to her one since they were married. Guess what James got me for Valentine's Day. (In all fairness he said it was his intention to get me some nice smelling candles since the ones I have are nearly burned up, he just thought it would be all the funnier in light of what we heard at the dinner.)

It snowed nearly all night and Saturday morning there was about three inches of snow. It had mostly melted by afternoon, but we had fun in it that morning.

Shannon came in the bathroom to tell me, "I've got some bad news. There's snow all over the car. Now you won't be able to see when you drive."



So we bundled up, and off we went for a walk. The snow was too dry and powdery to make a snow man. Anything bigger than a snow ball would fall apart. We would have skied though, had we a nice run down a mountain, a chair lift, and...skis.











































Sunday afternoon, Valentine's Day, James rode his bike home from church and then I took the oldest two kids skating. We met a few friends there for some rear end busting fun.

Amelia with part of the Jennings and Baumgarder crew, who were apparently looking at somebody's else's camera.


This was only our second time skating, and Amelia decided to try roller blades.



Shannon opted for the more traditional way to bust his booty.







Jill B. and Sydney.



Both of them were doing pretty well near the end. Shannon actually turned into a maniac on wheels once he realized he could go fast. Next time we'll work on stopping without it involving a wall or person.



Amelia was ready to come back the next day. I was too, except for the painful rental roller blades. If I was going to skate more than twice a year I would definetely buy another pair.

We did finally have a few gorgeous days this past weekend. It got up to 64 degrees, which was truly a heat wave for this winter. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy it on Saturday, as Rebecca and I were at a camp fair in Columbia, SC for the day. James was in Birmingham, AL at another camp fair, and my folks came up to stay with the kids. I enjoyed the road trip and hang out time with Rebecca, though it's a haul to Columbia. Mostly because there's no easy way to get there from here. I'm sure we were on at least 20 different roads.

We're doing all we can this time of year to get the word out there about camp, and hopefully gain some more camp registrations for this summer. We're behind right now, and it's been a matter committed largly to prayer. I'm looking forward to seeing how God will come through. I'll let you know.

I did get to enjoy the awesome weather we had on Sunday by guiding a trail ride for a group from a local college. In short sleeves! I felt like I was coming out of hibernation. It really is amazing how a little sunshine can give you a whole new outlook on life. This week it's cold again. I have a feeling God often views us as He did the Isrealites- "You people ask for rain, I send lots of rain, you complain. You ask for a break from hot weather, I send lots of cold weather, you complain. I can hear it now in July, 'Man it's hot!! Wish it would cool off!'" Sorry, Lord.

Sunday Shannon's choir sang again. Aren't they cute? The early service is always fun to watch, because at least half of them spend their entire time yawning.



This photo is funny for a couple of reasons.

The yawning, and the look on Shannon's face, which so completely represents his feelings about singing with his choir in church. Please ignore the scary eye, which refused to be doctored by my highly unsophisticated software. I actually think it helps represent the intensity of Shannon's feelings though.

Ethan is cute, Shannon is peeved. Not sure what happened to everyone's color here. The lighting is weird in the church and the camera doesn't know what to do with it. (And I don't know what to do with the camera, as I am still only about 1/2 through Digital Photography For Dummies.)

This is the face accompanying the song whose words go, "I'm inside, outside, upright, downright, happy all the time." Amelia F. looks cute though, in spite of the blur. I'm feeling inspired to finish that Dummies book. I'll go find it now.

The only other thing of note this week is that my cousin Brooke's baby was born this week, baby girl McKenley (no middle name yet) Barnett. This makes my dad's brother Danny 6 and 0 for girl grandbabies.

I'm off to bed so I can hit the hay first thing in the morning. I mean, throw the hay. To the horses, that is.

Farewell!

School days

Here are a few random pictures of the first grade, pre-K, and nursery school classes at the esteemed Himstedt Preparatory School, taken last week.

Sometimes Amelia likes to do math with her favorite blanket. I guess it helps the brain work more efficiently. Perhaps I should choose a favorite blanket and carry it with me wherever I go.

We passed the 100th day of school a little while back, and are on the downward slope toward summer. Amelia just finished her math book for the year, the second book from a wonderful company called Math-U-See. She can now add and subtract all single digits, and has memorized her addition math facts. We're still working on getting the subtraction ones down cold, but she's at least at a point with them where she can figure them all out by adding up. We'll spend the rest of this school year practicing addition and subtraction and playing math games. Math is NOT my forte, and never has been. I've always known where it all went awry for me (first grade), and just the other day in the basement I found my PERMANENT RECORD from first grade with a teacher's evaluation of my progress to prove it. "Does not grasp basics in mathematics. Has no understanding of the number line." I fell through so many cracks early on that I finally got to where I could hide my struggle, squeak by mostly with C's, and attempt to make math go away altogether once I was through school. Then I started home schooling, so here it is again! I've been very pleased with my progress in first grade math, and have (truthfully, honestly, and sadly) learned a great deal. I'm even looking forward to second grade math. :) Oh yeah, and I'm really proud of Amelia too. She struggles with paying attention to her math work and finishing it in a timely manner, mostly because she seems to be wired like me. WAY more to the reading/writing/language side of the spectrum, stuff she does with no problem.

Shannon is officially pre-K age though with an October birthay he's been five for four months already. He and I do reading lessons each day, er, most days for about 20 minutes with the book Amelia and I used, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We're now on Lesson 76 and he's doing great. I figured if we could knock reading out of the way before he is officially a kindergartener, then next school year will be a piece of cake for him (and me!). I can also do more with the two of them together if he's already reading.

Shannon doesn't like for me to point at the book to help him keep up with where he is, he'd rather do it himself.

Today's pointer of choice is a tank.

For the second time now I'm getting a front row seat to the process of a child learning to read. (Third time, if you count when I learned to read...which I don't remember, so I guess it doesn't count.) It's amazing! The brain is truly an incredible creation.

This particular day Amelia decided it would be fun to do math in Elizabeth's seat.



She's a bit oversized for it these days.



Though it started out as her seat just six short years ago.

I love this one from her first birthday. All of the siblings who've been through this seat liked to hook their toes under the rim of the tray. Not a chance of that happening now!

These are just for fun.



She made some great faces.



Here's the prodigy. Here you can see her working on her second novel in a historical fiction series about the Civil War.



Her writing is a little messy and scribble scrabbly, so maybe that's not what she's working on. It's hard to be sure.

Please excuse the ridiculous hair, she kept taking her hair bows out and throwing them into forsaken areas of the Himstedt home, so I grabbed the closest thing I could find. She wore her hair like a fountain for the rest of the morning.

I think I'll try out every color...







And with a final touch of blue...voila!

Elizabeth likes to draw and color while we do school. She also likes to pull out every game and puzzle we own and take out all the little pieces. Pulling out all the coloring books is fun too, as well as getting out the play dough, which she can open herself. It usually looks like a toy and game warzone when I'm finished with school, because she knows I'm not paying close attention to what all she's doing. Fourth children everywhere know that their mamas are always busy doing something, and as long as they're not crying they can do a lot of what they want, JUST SO MOMMY CAN FINISH A TASK! (I used to think I'd never be a mom who would let my little ones play in the Tupperware cabinet because it's so much to clean up. Then I realized it could buy me at least ten more minutes to finish making dinner most nights.)

Before bed the other night Amelia gathered the other kids for "Amelia's storytime." All that hard work teaching her to read has paid off. Look at this.

They all climbed up in the chair with her of their own accord. I love seeing them snuggled up together, and with her taking on the big sister role. One of my prayers for them is that they will grow up close to each other and have terrific relationships as adults.



After finishing Gone With the Wind, War and Peace, and the Bible, Elizabeth picked up some lighter reading for the evening.



The lack of Avery in school photos is because Avery doesn't do school of any kind yet. I realized the other day that he doesn't even know most of his letters. He can sing the ABC's (even the "angry ABC's"), but he doesn't know which one's what. I have a feeling he'll pick up a lot of it before the two years leading up to his official Kindergarten year are over.

It's funny how when folks ask about our life and they learn what we do and how many kids we have, they nearly always automatically ask, "So are you home schooling?" I guess we fit the part somehow. I kid with friends that as soon as I grow my hair out enough for a long ponytail I'm going to make myself a denim jumper for each day of the week, don my white Keds, and go plant that organic garden. We'll probably get some chickens and goats too.

I do get asked if I think I'll keep on with home schooling all the way through. I answer that I don't know yet, right now it's what's right for our family. I feel God led me into it (especially since there was a day I was pretty vehemently against it- before kids arrived), and has given me a heart for teaching our kids. It took me awhile to realize that keeping them home isn't unnatural- sending them away kind of is. Folks question how they'll learn about the real world. I would counter that school isn't anything like the real world, with classrooms full of same-aged folks, walking in lines hither and yon, being taught the same stuff at the same pace regardless of learning style, and working mostly independently without the collaboration of others. We're working to learn about the real world while out in it- at the grocery store, the bank, the post office, and, of course, Walmart. Most importantly we're striving to see it all through a God-shaped perspective.

It has given me a real appreciation for how hard school teachers work. I can't imagine teaching over 20 little folks to read or do math at one time, especially if parents aren't particularly helpful at home. Wow!

Home schooling does take a committment, as it's something that has to be done everyday whether you're in the mood or not, and it takes up a couple of hours each day. I wouldn't trade the time for what I see taking shape though. The Bible says for us to raise our children in the admonition of the Lord. I think it would be hard for me to do a good job with that if they were gone 7-8 hours everyday, giving James and i just five busy hours each evening (if they didn't do other activities) and weekends to hang out with them, talk with them, and influence them. I like that they are spending extended time in their early years with us. In my life I think being in public school created detachment issues between me and my parents. (Well, that and my dad worked a lot of hours.) I either didn't go to them with issues I was having, or rejected some council when it was offered because I knew they weren't in "my life" each day, and wouldn't "get it." I knew school and life were different (and issues were harder in some ways) than they were back in my parents' day, just like the world my kids are growing up in is different (and harder) from what I grew up in.

I also remember in high school thinking it was normal to throw around sexual innuendos and inappropriate banter because everyone did. It was better to come back with a remark of your own rather than look all embarrassed. It was hard to reconcile daily life and church life, where we as youth were reminded that we were supposed to be different.

That's how it was for me, and as much as a mom's heart wants to shield her kids from the world's crap, I don't think that's the right approach either. The crap's there, and always will be, it's up to us as parents to expose them to things as they are mature enough. Keeping them at home while they're young makes that a little easier.

I could outline a REALLY BIG list of things I love about home schooling besides the stuff mentioned above, but I'll spare you. (I could also make a list of some drawbacks!) At the end of it all, I'd love to just be able to say that we have a relationship, our kids and us, and more importantly that they have one with God. I'd say that's every Christian parents' hope.

Well, I've got more pictures and updates to post sometime soon, and hopefully I'll get to it before next year. In the past few weeks it's snowed again, we've been skating, had friends over, and more. Maybe you'll get lucky enough to hear some more of my rambling philosophical outpourings as well!

And...tomorrow...is...my...birthday...whether....I...want...it...to....come....or....not. I'd just as soon not. The day can come, of course, but it can leave off the part where I have to increase the number to 36. Ugh.

Well, I'm off to bed, and to prepare for a day of the kids asking when we're going to go to my party, and being confused that there wasn't one.

So long!