August 20, 2008
Ella got her first shiner on Sunday morning. It looks SO bad right now - she looks like a real bruiser! She and her friend Coen walked (well, ran) right into each other in the nursery at church. They were each headed different directions, and they collided. Coen's shorter than Ella, so he got bumped on the head and barely noticed. Ella hit right below her left eye. For a couple hours it was big and puffy, but then the swelling went down and it turned purple. As it's been healing up this week, it's gotten worse, because the bruise has spread out. 

We've now completed three days of homeschool for the year. I have to say, at least so far, that I LOVE our new schedule and curricula. Ethan's participating with about half of it, with Bible, science, and history, then he's been going on Starfall.com to work on some prereading and phonics "games", which keeps him occupied while Natalie does seat work. Ella mostly likes to sit next to us and color on paper or on the white board. 

I think I mentioned a while ago, that after last year feeling like some of the things weren't a good fit, this year I picked and chose from all the THOUSANDS of choices out there, and found what I hope will work for us. I spent our time off this summer researching a ton of different things, and then going through and working everything out into my own weekly schedules. A few friends have asked me how I was able to "write my own curriculum" this year, but it really was very easy. I just took the individual sections, chapters, or lessons per book, and separated them out into the right number of days. For some subjects, like Math, spelling, and handwriting, we have one lesson every day. For other subjects, like Science, we do three lessons per week. For history, the book I'm using is divided up really nicely already, with a few sections of reading per week, and a couple days of related activities. I really liked writing my own schedule, because unlike last year, when after just a few weeks I felt like I was chained to a schedule that sometimes wasn't realistic or just wasn't working for us, this year I have it set according to what I know will work for my kids and for me.  This year's CHEO conference was so good and I learned so much, including that I wayyyy overdid it last year with my notification letter to the superintendent. For one thing, I learned that I didn't even NEED to notify last year, because she didn't turn six until February, and the amount of information I gave was way too much -- so much so that I could have done a disservice to future homeschoolers in that district (we don't live there anymore) because I helped set a precedent for providing more information to them than I had to. I was under the impression that the notification letter was to in some way to get approval for homeschooling. But it absolutely is not the purpose of the notification letter. It is just to...notify. (Hence, the name "notification of intent". You think I would have figured that out.) 

So anyway, this year when I mailed in my letter of intent, I was a lot smarter about it. I provided what I needed to provide, and nothing else. I know I'm going to homeschool my kids even if the superintendent of our local schools doesn't like the idea! I don't need to use the notification letter as an opportunity to convince anyone about the merits of homeschooling.

Here is what I included in my addendum to the notification letter this year:

(6) Brief outline of the intended curriculum for the current year.

 Monday-Friday daily: 

Bible: reading & character studies.

History & Geography: reading and related activities on historical figures and places, specifically ancient peoples and places.

Read-Alouds: reading from various children’s classics.

Science: textbook readings and accompanying worksheets, and vocabulary. Average of 1 science experiment per week based on each week’s material.

Language arts:  phonics work, spelling words, daily reading using level-appropriate readers, daily handwriting practice using dictation and copying.

Math: instruction using text, workbooks, and manipulative blocks. Clock reading and calendar work will be covered this year.

 Additional weekly activities:

--Topically appropriate field trip once every two weeks – e.g., the zoo, COSI, botanical gardens.

--Physical education will include: weekly 1-hour homeschool gym activities, including group games and physical activity.

-- Music education once per week in the form of piano instruction, singing, simple instruments and recorder.

-- Art education once per week.

-- Health and wellness along with kitchen and personal safety.

 (7) A list of; textbooks, commercial curricula, other basic teaching materials for informational purposes only:

            Sonlight Curriculum Ltd. (Language Arts 2)

Story of the World Volume 1 (Ancient Times) textbook and activity guide

Math-U-See Alpha set

Getty & Dubay Handwriting Book B

Explode the Code Work texts 4, 5, and 6

Leading Little Ones to God

Beginner’s Bible

Our Father’s World Science (Christian Liberty Press)

Art Adventures at Home

A Child’s Book of Character Building

Various children’s read-aloud classics (e.g., Henry Huggins, Charlotte’s Web)

 Supplemental material using:

            What Your First Grader Needs to Know

            Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia

            Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

            A is for Adam (Answers in Genesis Press)

            Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials

August 14, 2008
It's been a long time, and I apologize to my kids, for whom I write this journal. There's really no particular reason why I haven't written, only that I've been writing along with my photos on Flickr lately, and I haven't felt up to writing more over here. Really I should write here first, then send up my pictures, but it usually doesn't work that way!  But I guess I can just say that I do the best I can, and hopefully my kids won't feel like I missed too much. On the plus side, they can know that usually when I haven't been writing much, its because I'm spending more time being with them and not sitting here at my computer!

Tonight, though, I'm back downstairs earlier after getting the kids to bed.  This has been a difficult few days, because of Ella getting weaned, but tonight Phil took over with her and she went right to sleep. Figures! Last night I literally wrestled with the girl for a good 30 minutes before giving up and going back downstairs with her for awhile. At 11:00 I tried again, and again, either wrestled with her to lay down, or finally, walked around the dark room with her, for a half hour before she finally conked out at just after 11:30. After all that, I never did make it back downstairs to hang out with Phil for awhile before bed. He said he came upstairs after awhile and found me lying in bed asleep, so he just tucked me in and left me alone to sleep. (We generally like to go to bed at the same time, and enjoy having TV time together before bed, even if it's just for 15 or 20 minutes or so.)  The last two days have been rough. Ella hasn't nursed since a week ago Tuesday night, but it seems she's just now starting to react about it. We were gone to Gatlinburg last weekend, so I think being out of routine helped things. Since being back home, Ella's now realizing that nursing really IS all done, and she's suddenly been tantruming quite a lot. She screams when she goes in the car seat, and for the last two days has been throwing lay-on-the-ground fits when she gets upset. It's so very not like her. She's always been a very happy, calm baby. So it makes me feel guilty knowing that it's likely caused by the sudden weaning (the other two were child-led weaned, Natalie at 21 months, Ethan at 12) when Ella was obviously not entirely ready. I never planned on doing a sudden cold-turkey wean, but after last week's episode I just had to. (If you didn't read it on my Flickr, she bit me in her sleep so hard and then wouldn't let go that I bled and bled and bled, and it hurt so bad it was still throbbing in pain three days later.) So I know it's what I had to do, but it's also hard to have that nursing relationship suddenly end, when with the other two it was so gentle. Even with Ethan, when it was encouraged along by my milk drying up when we attempted to fix my cycle using the low dose hormones. He was barely nursing by then, and after the first day or so he barely noticed. Ella only still asks about nursing when I sit down, so I've been trying to keep moving a lot the last few days. (Which means I get tears when I sit down to check my email, and I've been watching TV only by walking around holding her.) 

It just hasn't been very pleasant around here the last few days, and it's hard on me because Ella is normally such a pleasant and happy girl...

I'll write more about being a (FINALLY!) non-nursing, non-pregnant mom later on, once I get a better grasp on how I feel about it. I keep swaying back and forth from absolute relief to moments of sadness right now, but a lot of that could just be the stress of the past couple days. I want to wait until I can look back on it with a little clearer eyes before writing too much more about it.

Yesterday was Ethan's birthday. He's FOUR now! It's so hard to believe. These days Ethan loves Sonic and Cars, and that will be his cake for his birthday party on Saturday. I'm making a race track cake with Sonic and Lightning McQueen in a race. I asked Ethan who he wanted to win, and he said Sonic.  He still amazes me every day with how smart he is. I've been preparing our homeschool curricula this summer (we will be starting next week) and while I do have some preschool materials that he'll be using for learning to read (which he wants to do), I plan on mostly just including him along with Natalie's 1-2 grade materials.  Yesterday we went to Chick Fil-A for lunch, and in the kids meal came a 'story starter' toy, with little word tiles that you shake out of a container, and you shake out three and then use those three words to make up a story. I started playing it with Natalie first, and after a couple rounds Ethan wanted to join in. I didn't think he'd really be able to participate without my significant help, but he came up with his own stories!  The kids played the game for over an hour yesterday. 

Natalie is getting excited about starting school next week. We're planning on our first day being Monday, so I've been spending all week getting the house put in some semblance of order, cleaning things out and getting our homeschool room organized. I've had the lesson plans finished since about mid-July, so I'll need to crack those open again this weekend to make sure we have everything we need for next week. We're doing a real eclectic mix this year. We'll be using Sonlight for Language Arts and read-alouds (second grade LA but with first grade spelling words and dictation), Math-U-See Alpha, Christian Liberty Press for science, Story of the World Volume 1 (Ancient Times) for history, a mix of Sonlight and some character training guides for Bible, the same handwriting program as last year, except we're using Book B, and then a couple other odds and ends for music, art, and other things here and there. I feel so much more confident this year in what we will be doing, and I don't feel nearly as worried as I did last year to make sure I was getting everything we need.  I think one of the biggest changes for this year is that we're going to be keeping a "portfolio", or basically a homeschool year scrapbook. That was one of the suggestions I picked up at this year's CHEO convention, as a good way to remember and reflect upon everything that we did all year. I'm going to write a little bit, either every day or every week, just a sentence or two, summing up what we did that day or week, and include it in the book, along with the kids' writings, workbook pages and so on. It will be a nice record to have many years from now!

Before I go for the night, I wanted to put in a quick word or two about our anniversary trip to Gatlinburg. We had such a great time, and Phil and I really felt like it was a second honeymoon-- albeit, with kids around.  A friend from church came with us to watch the kids, though, and that made for a perfect compromise between a family vacation and some needed alone time as a couple. I wrote a lot about the trip on my Flickr page, so I thought I'd just copy and paste what I wrote here, since my Flickr comments won't be preserved later like this journal is! Here's what I wrote:

So, we're back from our anniversary/second honeymoon trip to Gatlinburg. We had such a great time, and made so many memories that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

It ended up being a trip with lots of facets, too. Not only was it a vacation with the kids and yet not with the kids (thanks to our friend Becky who came with us as our babysitter/photographer/videographer/last-minute dress seamstress) but it ended up being the weekend that Ella was weaned from nursing. 

It all started the night before we left. Ella as of late has been wanting to snuggle next to me, nursing, all night long. Normally it didn't much bother me because I'd just fall right back asleep and barely notice her there. On Tuesday night, about 3 am, I woke up with Ella asleep, but in her sleep she was biting down on me - HARD - and wouldn't let go. When I finally got her off, I discovered blood all over myself and the sheets, and decided right then and there, that she was done nursing. I practiced child-led weaning with the other two (Natalie at 21 months, Ethan at 12) but Ella showed no signs of letting up. Since she is nearly 21 months, I was feeling ready to quit anyway, and this was just the last straw. So, we decided that this would be the weekend to do it - being out of routine already anyway. I was a little anxious for how difficult it would be for Becky to comfort a forcibly-weaned baby at night, but Ella ended up doing very well. The first night, she woke up and wanted mama, so Becky called us around 2 am and Phil took her into our room and got her back to sleep. For the next two nights, she woke up but just a little, and Becky was able to get her back to sleep. So we got TWO FULL NIGHTS of sleep --UNINTERRUPTED!! I woke up Friday morning feeling so very, very refreshed, and not just because it was the night after a wonderful anniversary evening with my husband, sleeping to the sound of the rushing river next to our room. I had gotten a full night of sleep, for the first time in, well, I don't know how long. 

Ella has now not nursed since that event on Tuesday night. She seems to be doing very well. Today, our first day back to routine, she asked to nurse at naptime, but when I started walking around with her, she put her head down on my shoulder and went right to sleep. Yayyyyyyy!!!!! 
I'll write more about finally being a non-nursing, non-pregnant ever again mom on my website later on. For now, back to our vacation.

On Friday, we went into downtown Gatlinburg and went up the Ober Gatlinburg tram, and then up to the top on the chair lifts. We thought the kids might have a fear of being up so high, but they LOVED it. Ella waved "hi" to everyone we passed on the chair lifts.

At 3:30 on Friday, we had our vow renewal ceremony. It was so wonderful. Phil and I both almost cried while saying our vows. We had intended on reciting our original wedding vows, and had even printed them out to take with us, but I realized when getting ready to go there that I'd forgotten them on my desk at home. So we just said whatever was on our hearts, and I'm glad it ended up being that way. We were a little rushed getting there because it took longer to get back down from Ober Gatlinburg than we had expected, so the kids didn't change into their nice clothes, and in trying to get our clothes changed really quickly, the buttons came off the straps on my dress. Phil pinned one side with our one available safety pin, and he sewed the other up using a little sewing kit I didn't even know I had packed. (Who would have thought I would have my own dress emergency prior to our ceremony? I prepare for them so often for every wedding I coordinate - I should have known better!) Becky later sewed my straps on better before going out to dinner later that afternoon. 

We had filet minion at The Alamo Steakhouse, where we had a table in the "Lover's Nook" -- a table for two with comfy wingback chairs, off in its own little corner of the restaurant - no one else in sight. The steak was so tender it could be cut with a fork. It was so, so, so good. Even better than the last best steak we had many years ago (when we could afford it) at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. This one even topped that.

On Saturday we hiked out to a waterfall in the national park. It was a very steep hike, but definately worth it. It was beautiful. We went to a church out in Sevierville on Saturday night. It was a really awesome church -- the only bad thing was that we had to leave the quiet calm of Gatlinburg and head up through the mess of Pigeon Forge to get there! Yuck, I would never want to stay there. It's like a beach town -- all tourist trap and flashing lights.

Sunday, after getting a late start and then checking out, we ate brunch then headed back into the park to go to Clingman's Dome. We only walked about a quarter of the way up when we decided we were close enough to the top. It's very steep, and at that altitude, even harder to climb, especially with three little kids. But we ended up having a lot of fun climbing over the rocks...the rocks that had a sign posted nearby which read "Falling deaths have occured on these rocks. Do not climb rocks." We didn't notice the sign until we were leaving. Ooops.

Overall it was just an amazing trip. We had a brief glimpse of the relaxation we felt on our honeymoon, especially on Friday, when Becky took the kids for the rest of the day after our renewal ceremony, and we just walked around together.

I feel so blessed to be able to renew our vows at this time in our lives. A couple years ago, there were lots of things going on in our lives and Phil and I had started to feel more like roommates and co-parents, instead of husband and wife. We never even considered not being together to be a possibility, but the thought of going through the rest of our lives feeling as blah as that was not something we were excited about. Then, our lives went through some upheaval, as Phil resigned from the ministry and decided he needed to work out some issues in his life, issues that go back to before his mom died when he was a teen. At first it was the most trying time of our marriage, but it drew us closer together than ever, and for the last year and a half or so, we've felt like we've had a new marriage. Renewing our vows this weekend reflected that. It was the perfect time to do it.