The kids had such a blast. Natalie was still talking about it this morning. The kids did some hands-on activities, like making candles, then we went to all the different living history locations, including a blacksmith, doctor, the doctor's house, a weaver, a broom maker, a print shop, woodworker, and a one room schoolhouse. We took a boat ride on the Ohio-Erie Canal, which was really fun too, even though it required an almost one mile walk each way. I thought for sure that the walking would conk Ethan out, but he kept up all afternoon. Every time we had a long stretch ahead of us he would run up ahead, even up to the very end of the day. I was surprised that he didn't even fall asleep on the way home (though Ella sure did - and quick!) so his little power nap on the way there must have been pretty good.

Several times through the day Natalie said, "This place is SO much FUN, mom!" I really had no idea that it would go over so well. It was too bad that Phil had to miss it for work, but he heard all about it last night.

I got to thinking a lot yesterday about what I wrote about last time, and I think I may have figured out a little why I have no ability to understand the feeling of "get me away from these kids". I *never* equated that statement, when I heard people say it (and I do hear it said a lot) that they by any means LOVE their kids any less, of course, or even like them less. So I figured that there had to be some other explanation. Then it sort of hit me in the shower yesterday morning (you see, when I shower early enough in the morning that Phil's still here, I have the ability to think while in the shower instead of jumping in and out before any kid fights erupt...). Phil and I found out not too long after we were married that we were both quality time people. (In the Love Language terminology, of what our primary, or most natural, expression and reception of love is.) Some people's "love language" is gifts, some acts of service, words of affirmation, and so on. It's actually really rare, according to the book author's research,  for a married couple to have the same love language, which poses its own blessings and challenges. On the positive side, when Phil and I get enough Us Time, we're both happy. When we've been lacking in time together, we're both cranky. Usually at each other.  So, for the both of us, it's just natural for us to most feel and express our love for our kids by way of time together. Even if we aren't doing anything but hanging out at home, or going grocery shopping, or any of the mundane things that need to get done. We're happiest when we can do those things together. There are many times that we think "this would be so much easier for the errand to get done if I just go and do it on my own", but even though it requires a lot more hassle to get three kids out the door and under control out in public, most of the time we do it anyway just because we want that time together. 

So that was my "ah-ha" moment. I still don't "get" how people can say, two days into a school break, that they can't wait until the kids are back in school, but now I think I understand a little better WHY I don't get it. 

Ella had her --um ....15 month.... checkup this morning. (Yes, she's 17 months. So I forgot to call to make an appointment with all the moving! She's not too far off - though I know I would have never gone two months late without a ton of guilt about it when Natalie was a baby.) I don't really know much about her checkup yet. Phil took the kids to her appointment this morning while I was across town getting a free hair color and cut by a student. (Yes it turned out really nice. No hack job.) I do know that she had some shots, and Phil mentioned that we need to schedule to get her hearing checked again. I don't really think there's a problem with her hearing; she listens and responds just fine, it seems to me. It could just be the last check she needs since they've been watching her ear "malformation" since birth. I'm going to ask him about it tonight when he gets home. I also asked him to make sure they wrote down her growth statistics, so if he remembered to do that I'll post it up here soon.

April 21, 2008
I might ruffle some feathers here with what I'm going to write, but I want to say from the outset here that I make NO judgments whatsoever on anyone's school choices. I've never thought, and I never will think, that homeschooling is the right choice for everyone. In fact there are some people that I think it would be disastrous for all involved if they homeschooled. Okay? So to everyone I know who chooses not to homeschool their kids or in the past chose not to, I'm not condemning anyone's decisions. Not everyone can or wants to go this route, and I completely respect that. So, that being said:

I'm hearing more and more lately, when someone finds out for the first time that we homeschool, they say something along the lines of the following: "Oh, I could never do that. I need a break from my kids." Or, a few days into a school break, a comment along the lines of, "I can't wait till they go back." I've got to say, I just don't understand that sentiment.  I mean, yeah, sure there are many times that I feel about ready to pull out my hair (maybe I do and that's where it's all gone), and times when I just WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE. PLEASE. Do I always get that? No, not usually. I don't even usually get two minutes when I'm trying to go to the bathroom in peace. But I manage to keep my sanity (relatively) and I grab moments alone and/or have kid-free times with Phil enough so that I don't go completely postal.

But mostly, I just want to be with my family. If it were up to me and Phil, we would take our kids and go travel the world, teaching them as we go, and spend almost 100% of our time together. (With brief solo errands out every now and then! Haha..) I see how quick our almost first decade of marriage has gone, and how the past 6 years have been just two blinks since our world was turned upside down when Natalie was born. Before we know it all our kids will be grown and gone to their own families. And we're not even guaranteed another day, or hour, with them. Not to be fatalistic, but I want to soak in every bit of my kids that I can. I just want to cherish every minute I have with them now. There's a song out on the radio right now that is so overplayed that it's beginning to annoy me, but I heard it again tonight and I made me think about this being another reason why we homeschool --certainly not the only, or even main, reason, but it's just A reason. The chorus goes: "So I'll dance with Cinderella, while she is here in my arms. 'Cause I know something the prince never knew. I'll dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms. 'Cause all too soon, the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone."

I just can't understand why so many parents are so eager to rush their three year olds off into preschool, and their 5 year olds into all-day kindergarten, when these early years are so fleeting. For those who can't or do not want to homeschool, why would they then take the few precious days they have to spend with their kids and instead of making the most of them, bemoan the time and wish for school to start again? If in the future we choose not to or for whatever unforeseen reason cannot go the homeschool route, I would want to keep sacred any family time I could possibly find. I feel blessed that we can have such a different lifestyle as a homeschooling and self-employed, schedule-flexible family (even through the considerable sacrifices this lifestyle requires), but even if we ended up becoming more traditional and schedule-fixed, I just can't imagine ever having the sentiment of "I just can't wait for these kids to get back in school and out of my hair." I don't get it. In just a few more blinks, they will be grown and out of my hair, and I don't want to miss any of it.

YES, they drive me crazy sometimes. And YES, there are times when I just feel like getting in my car ALONE and not having to listen to any little voices. And when I do get those times, I usually really enjoy it but after just a little while, I'm ready to join up with my family again and be together. 

Natalie had some kind of stomach bug today. It was really bad, but I think she's feeling better. I hope so - we're registered to go on a tour of Roscoe Village in Coshocton tomorrow. They're having Homeschool day, including candle making, basket weaving, and canal boat rides. I hope she wakes up in the morning feeling good! We love field trips!

April 14, 2008
Hey! Look! We're back! Where have we gone? Well, no where, but I sure haven't been around here, have I? 

Technically, we did go somewhere -- we moved into our new house -- but that doesn't very well excuse being so absent on the journal.  But all I can do is pick up from where I left off, and hope that those of you who have followed this journal for years and have been wondering what's going on with us, have made it over to my Flickr page, where at least I've kept up with the photos! 

So we moved into our new house, and it is so nice. I love it so much. We haven't had to do all that much to it other than get all our stuff moved in and set up, and that's finally coming together. The only thing we haven't yet gotten to is getting the blinds installed. I know, we have naked windows. I thought it would be a simple thing to get the blinds installed -- I've done it several times before -- but when we first attempted it I discovered that the windows were edged in metal, and they are framed in trim, so I couldn't screw them right into the drywall either. My cordless drill didn't have the oomph needed to get the screws in (either that, or my arm strength didn't) but we finally borrowed my stepdad's drill and bit set last week, so we're going to attempt it again soon. (Yes we borrowed the drill set LAST WEEK and it's still sitting on my kitchen island waiting to be used. But at least it's HERE, which is a good first step. Right?)

The kids are enjoying the new house. Ella and Natalie are sharing a room. Natalie has her bunk bed, and Ella is in the fire truck toddler bed. Ethan has his own room, and he's very excited to tell people, a BED with a SLIDE! He loves it, as do the other kids and all visiting children as well. Usually within a few minutes of visiting kids, we hear several "thumps" from upstairs as the kids are taking turns jumping off his loft bed. Fun fun.

I set up a play room for the kids down in the basement. It's not finished, but we have some carpet remnants down there and I sectioned off a part of the basement using that carpet and the toy shelving. It makes a good little play area, where the toys can be scattered and it doesn't bother me too much.  We've also gotten our office put together so that it's a functioning homeschool room. It's our office, book room, and homeschooling room, all in one. Other than our living room, it's where most of our time is spent during the day!

Homeschooling is going well, by the way. We're heading into the home stretch of Natalie's first official year. We're now almost completely into first grade material, although I put aside Math U See until we start our "new" year (which will be this summer, probably July is when the new "school year" will start, after a few weeks off in June) and she's just been working on an online math program to get a little more solid in some areas before we go back into our main program. I also upgraded to the new version of Math U See, instead of the older MUS curriculum that I found off of a used site, so I look forward to using the new stuff instead. Through this year I've been on a MUS user group, and I've learned a ton about how much improved the updated curriculum is, so I decided to just stop with the old stuff where we were, and I'll start back at the beginning of Alpha. I'm kind of amazed at how eclectic I've become over our first year, picking and choosing from different companies to find the right fit for Natalie's learning style and my teaching style. We started out the year using mostly Sonlight, but now it's broadened quite a bit to include several things from A Beka for phonics and social studies readers, Calvert for history, Time4Learning online curriculum for more language arts, spelling, math, and additional phonics. We're still using Sonlight for everything else, like handwriting, read-alouds, and science.  About halfway through this year I began discovering that maybe, just maybe, Natalie didn't have the same learning style as me (imagine!) so maybe I needed to shake things up a bit and find things that would work better for her. It's been working really well. Not that it wasn't going okay before, but I was getting really tired of telling Natalie several times a day "please sit down", "Natalie, will you please listen?" or asking her a comprehension question and finding out she had no idea what I'd just been reading about for the past ten minutes. Since going a little eclectic, I'm using a lot more of Natalie's senses, and she's doing a lot more than just sitting and listening to me read (drone on and on) all day. Last week I had her trace the world map, first with her finger, and then onto a piece of paper, and she was so thrilled with herself for making her own first map. She spent the next twenty minutes carefully labeling every continent and making a compass rose on the map, just because she wanted to keep going with it. Ethan's been starting to get in on the action quite a bit too. He has his preschool workbook that he likes to do whenever Natalie is doing table work, but the boy is always sitting right next to Natalie when she's going through the online program too. He sometimes actually yells out the correct answer before Natalie has a chance to click on it. A few times I've let him "play" on it when Natalie is done, usually dialing back the level to K for him, and he does surprisingly well. He can't do the reading activities yet, but as far as math and some basic phonics, he does pretty good. Today Ethan started attending the same homeschool gym class that Natalie has been going to all year. There were a couple other older 3's in the class - younger siblings of other kids - so I asked Ethan if he wanted to start going to gym class and he was very excited about the idea. The boy had a huge grin on his face all hour today. He especially liked swinging and jumping from the trapeze, jumping into a ball pit. He seemed to do fine with paying attention and following the teacher's directions. It's just at home that he seems to have selective hearing!

Spring has finally started to appear around here, and I'm loving watching all the different plants that are popping up around my house. Right now I have daffodils and some purple and pink flowers in full bloom, and the trees are VERY close to budding. I think we may also have some tulips that are sprouting up, although it's hard to tell for sure still.  We rented a plot of land at the township community garden, which we're excited about because we can get some vegetables planted. I'll eventually get a veggie garden going here at the house instead, but this year it was too much to think about tilling up the ground and getting good dirt brought in for a garden. The community garden is all ready for planting, all we need to bring are seeds. The kids want to plant corn on the cob and green beans. I don't yet know what else we'll do -- probably some tomatoes and whatever else I find at the store. We can get in there to plant May 1st.

The biggest news of last week was when Natalie got her hair cut. Ten inches cut. She's been growing it since the day she turned four, when she had decided she wanted to grow her hair all the way to her waist. And she did - it was that long, at least when it was wet from a bath. Then a week ago, she just suddenly decided that she wanted to cut it. Short. So we got her hair cut and had the hair donated to Locks of Love. She says she really wanted it shorter, but I think it's just perfect as it is. It is SO much easier to brush now too!

I guess that about covers all the updates, at least covering it in big, broad strokes.  I resolve to get back here to update much more often. Really.