Friday, October 29, 2010
Randomness
I feel like God had me in a season of preparation...for what I don't know. I have a million thoughts going through my head...so many desires, prayers, questions. It's exhausting, physically and mentally. And I continually ask myself...do I and will I have even a mustard seed of faith? I pray I will.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Wait - Dad left you in the elevator by yourselves?
Here's a little gem of a story from this past week...
Dave took Reese and Luke to the library one evening. They started to take the elevator (and had already pressed “2”) when forgot he had last week’s books still in his hands. Naturally, Dave asked Reese to hold the “Door Open” button while he ran 25 feet to put the books into the return bin (it's what any parent who has a 5 year-old-who-is-well-familiar-with-buttons-in-a-library-that-is-like-a-second-home would do, right? I probably would have. :) ) But even though Reese had the button pushed the door starts to close anyway and as Dave is putting the books in the bin, he heard Reese say, “Dad, the door’s closing. The door’s closing!” as it bangs shut.
In one second flat, both boys began yelling and stamping their feet as the elevator lifts off. Folks at the check out counter are looking at Dave, mouths agape. Dave looks at them and says, “Well, I guess I’d better take the stairs to the second floor” and begins running up the stairs. The screams could readily be heard throughout the library.
Dave got to the second floor as the elevator doors opened. The two spill out in tears. It took him a couple of minutes to calm them down in the bathroom while he was trying to hide his face as he was laughing so hard at the absurdity of the situation. Once they were calm, they were able to enjoy their time at the library.
On the way home, Dave tried to bring some levity to the mood as the boys were still shaken up the experience. He asked who would be the first to tell Mommy about their fun adventure. Luke said, “That was a bad adventure ... bad adventure!” in true Lukie style. Reese finally cracked a smile over the situation.
At home, Reese starting telling me the story. The first thing out of my mouth was, “Wait – Dad left you in the elevator by yourselves?!” You know, because little men sometimes get excited and get the facts all muddled together. So, Dave began to clarify what had happened. When he got the part of imitating the boys (and we could picture them looking at each other, eyes wide and yelling AAAAAHHHHH!) all of us couldn't help but laugh hysterically over it. Reese got a big kick over this retelling.
Lessons learned: (1) Elevator “Door Open” buttons only work for a few seconds and (2) Despite how grown up they want to be, one quarter of a minute in an elevator by themselves reduced our two little intrepid “Dad, I’m big enough to do that” explorers into helpless puddles which is probably not a bad thing - Reese may be more willing to wait for Dave or I before pressing any buttons.
Seriously though, Dave would never have done this in another place. Though it does make one think about the choices we make, for better or for worse, in places familar and comfortable...
Dave took Reese and Luke to the library one evening. They started to take the elevator (and had already pressed “2”) when forgot he had last week’s books still in his hands. Naturally, Dave asked Reese to hold the “Door Open” button while he ran 25 feet to put the books into the return bin (it's what any parent who has a 5 year-old-who-is-well-familiar-with-buttons-in-a-library-that-is-like-a-second-home would do, right? I probably would have. :) ) But even though Reese had the button pushed the door starts to close anyway and as Dave is putting the books in the bin, he heard Reese say, “Dad, the door’s closing. The door’s closing!” as it bangs shut.
In one second flat, both boys began yelling and stamping their feet as the elevator lifts off. Folks at the check out counter are looking at Dave, mouths agape. Dave looks at them and says, “Well, I guess I’d better take the stairs to the second floor” and begins running up the stairs. The screams could readily be heard throughout the library.
Dave got to the second floor as the elevator doors opened. The two spill out in tears. It took him a couple of minutes to calm them down in the bathroom while he was trying to hide his face as he was laughing so hard at the absurdity of the situation. Once they were calm, they were able to enjoy their time at the library.
On the way home, Dave tried to bring some levity to the mood as the boys were still shaken up the experience. He asked who would be the first to tell Mommy about their fun adventure. Luke said, “That was a bad adventure ... bad adventure!” in true Lukie style. Reese finally cracked a smile over the situation.
At home, Reese starting telling me the story. The first thing out of my mouth was, “Wait – Dad left you in the elevator by yourselves?!” You know, because little men sometimes get excited and get the facts all muddled together. So, Dave began to clarify what had happened. When he got the part of imitating the boys (and we could picture them looking at each other, eyes wide and yelling AAAAAHHHHH!) all of us couldn't help but laugh hysterically over it. Reese got a big kick over this retelling.
Lessons learned: (1) Elevator “Door Open” buttons only work for a few seconds and (2) Despite how grown up they want to be, one quarter of a minute in an elevator by themselves reduced our two little intrepid “Dad, I’m big enough to do that” explorers into helpless puddles which is probably not a bad thing - Reese may be more willing to wait for Dave or I before pressing any buttons.
Seriously though, Dave would never have done this in another place. Though it does make one think about the choices we make, for better or for worse, in places familar and comfortable...
homeschooling howsitgoing
Since people often ask "how's it going" related to our homeschooling adventure, I figured I'd attempt to do a weekly/bi-weekly/at-the-very-least-monthly recap. Plus it will help me remember everything once I need to prepare our portfolio for assessment.
Overall, a good week, though not as intense with school work. I was excited to get the new materials I ordered - a math curriculum for Reese and a more challenging mult-subject workbook for him. New math practice workbooks for Brie and a preschool activity book for Luke. Luke loved being able to watch his "daddy tape" this week - Dave chose to read Luke's new "Cars" book.
What we accomplished this week:
Overall, a good week, though not as intense with school work. I was excited to get the new materials I ordered - a math curriculum for Reese and a more challenging mult-subject workbook for him. New math practice workbooks for Brie and a preschool activity book for Luke. Luke loved being able to watch his "daddy tape" this week - Dave chose to read Luke's new "Cars" book.
What we accomplished this week:
- Field trip to an apple orchard - we picked a half bushel and enjoyed sampling many varities of apples
- Went on a hike last Saturday and gathered leaves for an upcoming art project
- Brie and Reese went to classes at Tim and Lauren's church. Brie loves her class, Reese was a little disappointed there wasn't a "better" snack
- Brie started ballet last Saturday (it counts as PE ;) )
- Brie attended an author's book club program at our local library where they learned about Mo Willems and did some games and art projects around his books
Saturday, October 9, 2010
homeschooling howsitgoing: week ?
Since people often ask "how's it going" related to our homeschooling adventure, I figured I'd attempt to do a weekly/bi-weekly/at-the-very-least-monthly recap. Plus it will help me remember everything once I need to prepare our portfolio for assessment.
The theme for most of the past two weeks would be: Doubts and Discouragement. Last week was harder than this week as I was questioning the wisdom of doing homeschooling and was toying with the thought that maybe a charter school would be a better choice. I even did a "pro" list to see if one option or the other would rise to the top as the wisest. Both side came out about even.
My conclusion - keep praying for God's guidance on how He would choose to educate our children. For now, I feel like homeschooling continues be the path to follow. I think part of the reason I went through all this doubting was because God wanted me to look at our curriculum and our schedule.
After much praying, I saw that I needed to "step it up" in the math department and adjust my approach in a couple other areas and God revealed how I could carve out two times in the day for one-on-one time with Luke (which had been a concern for me). While I hate doubting myself, but I love how God uses it for His good by keeping me from becoming prideful and thinking I "know it all" when it comes to teaching our children.
On the activity side, here's what we did the past two weeks:
The theme for most of the past two weeks would be: Doubts and Discouragement. Last week was harder than this week as I was questioning the wisdom of doing homeschooling and was toying with the thought that maybe a charter school would be a better choice. I even did a "pro" list to see if one option or the other would rise to the top as the wisest. Both side came out about even.
My conclusion - keep praying for God's guidance on how He would choose to educate our children. For now, I feel like homeschooling continues be the path to follow. I think part of the reason I went through all this doubting was because God wanted me to look at our curriculum and our schedule.
After much praying, I saw that I needed to "step it up" in the math department and adjust my approach in a couple other areas and God revealed how I could carve out two times in the day for one-on-one time with Luke (which had been a concern for me). While I hate doubting myself, but I love how God uses it for His good by keeping me from becoming prideful and thinking I "know it all" when it comes to teaching our children.
On the activity side, here's what we did the past two weeks:
- Completed our study on insects. Went on a hike with friends to find insects - God obliged by sending us a grasshopper, literally right at my feet. We also saw some fuzzy caterpillars, bumblebees, moths and a toad (though not an insect it did provide 5 minutes of amusement for us).
- Started a study on trees for this month. Focused on identifying deciduous vs. evergreen. Went on two separate walks to spot trees and had Brie complete bar graphs representing the tally of d vs. e trees for each walk. Read several books on trees. Watched a Bill Nye DVD on forests. Attended a program on leaves. Did leaf rubbings and bark rubbings.
- Continued studying about Canada by reading books, drawing a chalk map of Canada on the driveway and quizzing the kids on the province and territory locations and checking out Sitka spruce and the Vancouver Island rainforest on the Internet.
- Watched the final stages of demolition of the house next to our church.
- Brie was able to go to work with Dave last Friday and see the Red Jacket Ceremony they do for corps members, got her picture with Cleveland's mayor (okay, so only half of her was showing as she was hiding behind Dave), and helped perform community service at a Cleveland school.
- Brie attended a "Missionettes" class at Lauren's church which she enjoyed and so we're praying about her involvement in the class for the rest of the year.
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