Wii

We exchanged gifts with Jon's family last night, since we'll be out of town Christmas day. Grammy and Grampy surprised the kids (and us) with a Wii. Totally unexpected and SO fun. :)

Christmas crafting

Now that the MOPS boutique is done, I have been able to do a few crafty things for around the house. I wasn't feeling too inspired until I went to Casey's house. :)

I copied this one exactly (words and all) from one she did:

I wish I could take better pictures, but it's 16x20" in silver. I also copied the idea of this second canvas, using words from a favorite song. These words are from "Let There Be Love," which Jon and I danced to at our wedding:

(I love how this next picture shows the reflection in the top of the newly cleaned dresser. Thank you, monthly cleaning guy!)

Last, I made a couple of bunting/banner things. This one says "JOY" and is above the cute Christmas card holder we made at MOPS.

This one that ended up on the staircase was supposed to have letters on it (I settled on "Let us adore Him") but the idea of making that many fabric or felt letters (and then stitching them on) was too annoying. Maybe I'll make those in time for next Christmas.

Levi-isms

A couple of new things Levi has said lately:

- Last night, he told me about something they had seen on a cartoon with a certain cat and mouse. "Mama, it was on 'Tom and Cherry.'"
- On Sunday after church, we were all in the car and Nate (or Lucy?) said, "Hey, I can feel my bone!" so we started talking about bones. Jon asked, "Does anyone know what the bones in our bodies are for?" No one answered for a second, and then Levi piped up: "They are for dogs!"
- "Mama, the flag in this shirt bodders me. Can you cut it out?"

Pickle Me

I took this video the other day trying to capture the crazy amount of noise and chaos the kids were producing. Of course, once I got out the camera, it had calmed down. BUT then I did catch the cute way Levi says the name of the movie Despicable Me. :)

This year's tree

The kids were so excited to get our Christmas tree this year. We went the day after Thanksgiving, and they wanted to rush home to put all the ornaments on. They went so fast, though, that they had all of them up within 2 or 3 minutes--all in a 2-foot-square area on the tree of course. I make sure to relocate my very favorite ornaments to the top of the tree--away from curious and clumsy hands (although I don't know how that blue Dodgers ornament ended up near the top...).

Lucy wanted a tree topper, but we don't really have one. I found this easy tutorial, and she and I did it together. The kids and I also made several miniature wreaths with some supplies I'd ordered a while back (mostly yarn and glitter pom poms).

A stream-of-consciousness update on school

I know I've been neglecting the blog lately. Sorry!

I've been thinking a lot already about next school year (2012-2013), because that's when Lucy will be in kindergarten and I won't be able to put off the where-will-she-be (home too? school?--public, private, charter?) question anymore. One thing I've learned over the past couple of months is that having one child in school (she's doing preschool 2 days a week right now) and another homeschooling makes both situations more difficult in some ways. (This was not expected--I originally thought having Lucy in preschool would be mostly helpful).

One of the benefits of homeschooling is eliminating the morning crazy rush. No matter how much I prep the night before, no matter how early I get up, if we need to be out of the house before 8:00 a.m. there is always rushing, stress, shoe hunting, unbrushed teeth, and carseat fighting (never heard of carseat fighting? It means two things: 1. children who fight their carseats because they're "too tight" and 2. children who fight each other while getting into their carseats). So, with one child in school, you have to deal with the morning crazy rush AND then come home with the homeschooling child to do all the work you could have been doing for the previous hour. Then later, you may be in a "groove" but must interrupt it to go pick up the in-school child.

So I would like, for simplicity and my sanity, to have both children in the same schooling situation--either at home or in school. And, while homeschooling with Nate is going relatively well (his initial excitement has definitely worn off, and he'd rather not do most of it, but he is learning stuff... and I had already decided at the beginning of the year not to be too intense with academics since he is doing fine in that area), I'm a little scared of homeschooling Lucy. She loves drawing and letters and projects and crafts, so the actual schooling part might be easier with her; it's the personality clashes and strong will that have me worried. And, frankly, it's the idea of even more work for me that is also worrying.

But if I "quit" homeschooling after one year, I feel like that makes me look like a failure. I value consistency and perseverance. When I think of our kids' long-term schooling lives, the picture I hate most is "a year here, two years doing this, then another year here, followed by a stint at this other place." I've always looked down on others' actions I perceived to be inconsistent, willy nilly, weak, and undependable.  I know the Lord is teaching me grace through this process (and through mothering in general), as I go through these types of decisions and realize my past perceptions were ungracious!

So here are my current options:
Homeschool both kids - I've come to the realization that to be an effective, loving, not-so-stressed-out homeschooling mom, I would need to quit my one-day-per-week/freelance job. This has been nagging at me for several months, and I've been ignoring it for several reasons. I really like this job. I really like my one day a week in the office. And we have genuinely needed the income it has provided. However, I know that if I didn't have that I-have-to-get-this-2-hours-of-work-done stress hanging over my head every single day, I would be so much freer to be more invested in and "present" for homeschooling. This is difficult for me, because this job is a nice boost to my ego and I like it. However, when I look at the big picture and my list of priorities, the job is way down on the list. But day to day, it doesn't get treated that way.


Try to get them into charter school - There is a local public charter school (Oxford) that has been around for a couple of years and focuses on addressing the learning styles of each student. I've heard great things about this school and think Nate would do well there (and Lucy too). To me, this is a much better choice than our regular local public school. The problem is there is a rather large waiting list (I heard 1,400)! I think April or May is when enrollment occurs--and the lottery after that. I guess I could get Nate and Luce into the lottery and let that be the deciding factor! Ug--but I hate to wait that long.

So there you have it: my current thinking on school/homeschool.