This year marks our 11th year of homeschooling. What started off as what one might call a fluke, has progressed to a lifestyle of learning for our family. In 2001, my oldest daughter was about to turn five years old, but a few weeks to late for the school system in our home state of Pennsylvania. She had already attended our church's preschool program for the last two years and was a sponge for learning. Even though I had told myself that I would NEVER homeschool my children because I did not have the patients required, I did not want my daughter to become bored at home waiting for the year to pass so that she could attend public school the following year.
I told myself that I would only homeschool for a year or two and then I would put her in public school. Well, that year turned into two and then three and then four. It was around this time that I found out that I was pregnant again (with baby #4) and that the third and fourth children would only be 20 months apart. There was no way that I could homeschool. I would be teaching a 1st grader, 4th grader and have two in diapers. So I decided to enroll the older two girls in public school.
We lived in a conservative area and most of the teachers and even the principal in the new school were Christians. During this school year, my husband quit his job, which provided housing for us and we had to move. We could not find reasonable housing in the same school district, so we decided to move to the town I grew up in and the girls attended the same school that I had attended. It was during this year that my husband joined the military and we moved only 7 months later.
Since my husband has to go through 4 months of training, we decided to go back to homeschooling again. Throughout the following years, we have utilized homeschooling, public school and even online Christian school for our older two girls to further their education.
Again, I said that I would NEVER homeschool for high school, but this fall my daughter starts her junior year. You would think by now that I would stop saying NEVER, because every time I do, I end up doing what I said I wouldn't do anyway.
So this year, along with having a newborn, I am homeschooling my girls in 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 11th grades. We started out this homeschool journey with me wanting my daughter to not just sit at home waiting to turn five so she could start kindergarten and now eleven years later are still at it.
We have had our rough patches and our great years, but I wouldn't trade these years with my kids for anything. In two years, my oldest will graduate and who knows what will happen after that.
Take the time to love on your kids and invest in them because the future could be right around the corner and much closer than you think!
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Change is good!
About this same time last year, I received some news that threatened to turn my world upside down. We had relocated to Fort Campbell, KY from South Korea and life was good. I turned forty years old not long after we signed for our housing, was in the process of getting ready to begin our 10th year homeschooling and my youngest child was about to turn six years old. Even though my husband's unit was set to deploy for nine months, he was chosen to be a part of the Rear D, to take care of the soldier and families left behind.
It couldn't be any better. And then the news arrived... I was pregnant!!! I could NOT be pregnant!!. I was over forty and my youngest child was soon to be six years old. It rocked my world. I did not want to be pregnant. It was totally unplanned. At first I was in denial. You see, I had recently told my husband to make an appointment with the urologist to get things taken care of because I was content with our family and ready to move into new things since the kids were getting older.
I not only wrestled with morning sickness, but the fact that I was pregnant. It took me months before I told anyone except for my family. It just could not be. After arguing with God, how could this happen (yes, I really do know how it happens...just not to me at this time), I finally came to grips with the fact that I was going to have another baby.
If you know me or have read early posts in my blog, you'll remember that I became pregnant in 2010, right after my husband returned from his year long deployment to Iraq. That pregnancy ended in miscarriage and so did the next pregnancy about 6 months later. Even though I was in the acceptance stage of this pregnancy, I did not really want to plan for another little one. What if something happened like the last time?
In January, when I was around 5 1/2 months pregnant, I had an ultrasound and found out that we were having another little girl. OMGosh! I was going to be a mom to FIVE daughters. I couldn't believe it. I think the reality hit when I saw her precious face on the screen.
Today I am sitting here with Olivia on my lap. She is a smiley 3 month old who loves the attention of her older sisters. Even my six year old changes poopy diapers to help out. I don't know what I would do without her.
The journey that has brought us to this point seemed very long at times. It was physically and emotionally exhausting but all worth it. The Lord worked on my heart and after many months of not wanting another baby, am very grateful for the Lord's blessing in our life. I still laugh at the fact that my oldest will be sixteen years old in a few weeks and that our youngest is only 14 weeks old.
I don't know what you are wrestling with right now, but let me encourage you to give it to the Lord. How ironic that this same lesson was part of my little girls devotions last night. Learning to trust God when you don't know how things will work out.
A friend of mine loves a particular line from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"... “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
God is good! We may go into unexpected places on our journey of life and faith but He is good and will be with us.
It couldn't be any better. And then the news arrived... I was pregnant!!! I could NOT be pregnant!!. I was over forty and my youngest child was soon to be six years old. It rocked my world. I did not want to be pregnant. It was totally unplanned. At first I was in denial. You see, I had recently told my husband to make an appointment with the urologist to get things taken care of because I was content with our family and ready to move into new things since the kids were getting older.
I not only wrestled with morning sickness, but the fact that I was pregnant. It took me months before I told anyone except for my family. It just could not be. After arguing with God, how could this happen (yes, I really do know how it happens...just not to me at this time), I finally came to grips with the fact that I was going to have another baby.
If you know me or have read early posts in my blog, you'll remember that I became pregnant in 2010, right after my husband returned from his year long deployment to Iraq. That pregnancy ended in miscarriage and so did the next pregnancy about 6 months later. Even though I was in the acceptance stage of this pregnancy, I did not really want to plan for another little one. What if something happened like the last time?
In January, when I was around 5 1/2 months pregnant, I had an ultrasound and found out that we were having another little girl. OMGosh! I was going to be a mom to FIVE daughters. I couldn't believe it. I think the reality hit when I saw her precious face on the screen.
Today I am sitting here with Olivia on my lap. She is a smiley 3 month old who loves the attention of her older sisters. Even my six year old changes poopy diapers to help out. I don't know what I would do without her.
The journey that has brought us to this point seemed very long at times. It was physically and emotionally exhausting but all worth it. The Lord worked on my heart and after many months of not wanting another baby, am very grateful for the Lord's blessing in our life. I still laugh at the fact that my oldest will be sixteen years old in a few weeks and that our youngest is only 14 weeks old.
I don't know what you are wrestling with right now, but let me encourage you to give it to the Lord. How ironic that this same lesson was part of my little girls devotions last night. Learning to trust God when you don't know how things will work out.
A friend of mine loves a particular line from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"... “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
God is good! We may go into unexpected places on our journey of life and faith but He is good and will be with us.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Reorganizing Life
It seems like forever since I last posted and there was even a large gap in between there. Life has been a bit unorganized, crazy and even hectic.
The "Reader's Digest" version is that my four daughters and I left South Korea in April. Due to a mistake on my husband's paperwork, he had to stay a month longer than his original DEROS date. During the remaining time my husband had in Korea, the girls and I spent at my parent's house in Pennsylvania getting adjusted back to life in the USA and having time with the family that we had not seen in the last year or even two years.
My husband arrived in the states at the end of May and we were on the go from the time he arrived. Three days after his arrival we took a family vacation to Puerto Rico for 8 days where my girls met their grandfather (Angel's dad) for the first time. We had a great vacation as we swam, went sightseeing and enjoyed a hike in the rainforest...which ended at a neat waterfall.
Upon our return from Puerto Rico, our van arrived from South Korea and we were able to pick it up. The next few days involved getting recalls and modifications on the van, packing and saying goodbye to my family.
Since my mother and sister-in-laws moved from NYC to North Carolina, we made our way south to spend a few days with them in their new home. Time flew by and the next thing we knew we were on our way to Fort Campbell.
In some ways I feel like we've been here for awhile, but in reality we have only been here for 9 days. With signing a lease, moving in and getting our shipment of stuff from Korea....life has been a whirlwind. I just unpacked that last box today, though I still have much to put away. Our small shipment (mainly personal items Angel used his last month in Korea) from Korea arrives tomorrow.
And next week our shipment of belongings that has been in storage for the last 2 plus years in Texas should be arriving also. WOW!!!
I am trying to take this time of transition and new things as a time to reorganize my life....and those of our family. We are purging our stuff, taking a look at what is important and what can we really do without. I am looking to God for the strength to get through each crazy day.
Maybe you haven't had all the changes taking place that we have had lately....but sometimes you need to just step back from the circle you are running in and re-evaluate what is going on in your life and ask yourself some hard questions.
Is what I am committed to helping or hindering my family?
Is my stuff getting in the way of my relationship with the Lord?
What is really important in life and are the things that we (as a family) are doing helping us grow closer to each other and God or not?
With a deployment looming in the future.....it makes me even more reflective and digging a little deeper as I answer these questions.
The "Reader's Digest" version is that my four daughters and I left South Korea in April. Due to a mistake on my husband's paperwork, he had to stay a month longer than his original DEROS date. During the remaining time my husband had in Korea, the girls and I spent at my parent's house in Pennsylvania getting adjusted back to life in the USA and having time with the family that we had not seen in the last year or even two years.
My husband arrived in the states at the end of May and we were on the go from the time he arrived. Three days after his arrival we took a family vacation to Puerto Rico for 8 days where my girls met their grandfather (Angel's dad) for the first time. We had a great vacation as we swam, went sightseeing and enjoyed a hike in the rainforest...which ended at a neat waterfall.
Upon our return from Puerto Rico, our van arrived from South Korea and we were able to pick it up. The next few days involved getting recalls and modifications on the van, packing and saying goodbye to my family.
Since my mother and sister-in-laws moved from NYC to North Carolina, we made our way south to spend a few days with them in their new home. Time flew by and the next thing we knew we were on our way to Fort Campbell.
In some ways I feel like we've been here for awhile, but in reality we have only been here for 9 days. With signing a lease, moving in and getting our shipment of stuff from Korea....life has been a whirlwind. I just unpacked that last box today, though I still have much to put away. Our small shipment (mainly personal items Angel used his last month in Korea) from Korea arrives tomorrow.
And next week our shipment of belongings that has been in storage for the last 2 plus years in Texas should be arriving also. WOW!!!
I am trying to take this time of transition and new things as a time to reorganize my life....and those of our family. We are purging our stuff, taking a look at what is important and what can we really do without. I am looking to God for the strength to get through each crazy day.
Maybe you haven't had all the changes taking place that we have had lately....but sometimes you need to just step back from the circle you are running in and re-evaluate what is going on in your life and ask yourself some hard questions.
Is what I am committed to helping or hindering my family?
Is my stuff getting in the way of my relationship with the Lord?
What is really important in life and are the things that we (as a family) are doing helping us grow closer to each other and God or not?
With a deployment looming in the future.....it makes me even more reflective and digging a little deeper as I answer these questions.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
You Know You're a Military Wife When....
~You show your military ID to the greeter at Walmart
~You've ever been referred to as "Household 6"
~You've ever had a pet named Scout, Ranger or Sergeant
~It only cost you $40 to have a child
~You can't remember the last time you saw a doctor who wasn't wearing ACUs
~You know that a 3 month separation IS short, no matter what your civilian friends say, heck 9 months is a breeze!
~Your husband's work and dress clothes cost more than yours do
~You can unpack a house and have everything in place in 48 hours
~You need a translator to talk to your civilian friends, only because they have no idea what DFAS, AER, TDY, ACS, NPD, PCS, ACU's, AAR and ETS mean
~You string Constantina wire to keep the neighbor's kids out of your flower beds
~You've changed more oil and mowed more lawns than your husband because he's never there to do it himself
~You use a crook-neck flashlight with a red lens during power outages because it's the only one you can ever find in the house
~Your children say "hoo ah" or "roger that" instead of "ok"
~You know that it's normal to light shoe polish on fire and that the best way to spit-shine boots is with cotton balls
~Your husband does a route recon and takes a GPS for a trip to the mall
~You only write in pencil because EVERYTHING is subject to change
~You have a larger selection of curtains than Walmart does
~You can remember where you kept the Scotch tape in your last house, but unfortunately, not in this one
~You mark time in duty stations, not years
~You refer to friends not only by name but by the state that they live in
~You know that "back home" doesn't mean at the house you live in now
~You tear up when you hear "Proud to Be An American," even though you've heard it 50 times by now
~You ALWAYS know when payday is and get ticked off if there are more than 2 weekends during that pay period
~You know better than to go to the PX or commissary between 11:30 and 13:00 unless it's a life or death emergency
~You know that any reference to "sand" or a "box" describes NTC at Ft. Irwin, not your kid's backyard toys
~You know that "Ft. Puke" is a completely accurate description of Ft. Polk
~You find yourself explaining your husband's LES to him
~You have enough camouflage in your house to wallpaper the White House
~You don't have to think about what time 21:30 is
~You're the TC, not a backseat driver
~You start ripping open MREs and looking for the M&Ms when you run out of Halloween candy
~You stand for the National Anthem at a movie theatre
~The local dry cleaner knows you by your first name
~You find that a large number of your clothes and household items are olive drab or loam, even though you never planned it that way
~You pick apart uniforms on TV and in the movies, even though you used to yell at your husband for doing the same thing
~You have a stock in flat rate shipping boxes, in varying sizes.
~You’ve spent more time apart than you have together.
~When the cashier ask you for your zip code you just stand there and stare
~You wish you could go to CIF to DX your old stuff like your husband can
~You've learned to sleep through the sounds of tanks, planes, helicopters and artillery rounds
~You give your kids a hand receipt when they take your Tupperware to school
~You can hate military life but be terrified to leave it all in the same breath
~You defend your lifestyle no matter how bad things get because you know there's no other life for you.
MANY of these are soooo true!
~You've ever been referred to as "Household 6"
~You've ever had a pet named Scout, Ranger or Sergeant
~It only cost you $40 to have a child
~You can't remember the last time you saw a doctor who wasn't wearing ACUs
~You know that a 3 month separation IS short, no matter what your civilian friends say, heck 9 months is a breeze!
~Your husband's work and dress clothes cost more than yours do
~You can unpack a house and have everything in place in 48 hours
~You need a translator to talk to your civilian friends, only because they have no idea what DFAS, AER, TDY, ACS, NPD, PCS, ACU's, AAR and ETS mean
~You string Constantina wire to keep the neighbor's kids out of your flower beds
~You've changed more oil and mowed more lawns than your husband because he's never there to do it himself
~You use a crook-neck flashlight with a red lens during power outages because it's the only one you can ever find in the house
~Your children say "hoo ah" or "roger that" instead of "ok"
~You know that it's normal to light shoe polish on fire and that the best way to spit-shine boots is with cotton balls
~Your husband does a route recon and takes a GPS for a trip to the mall
~You only write in pencil because EVERYTHING is subject to change
~You have a larger selection of curtains than Walmart does
~You can remember where you kept the Scotch tape in your last house, but unfortunately, not in this one
~You mark time in duty stations, not years
~You refer to friends not only by name but by the state that they live in
~You know that "back home" doesn't mean at the house you live in now
~You tear up when you hear "Proud to Be An American," even though you've heard it 50 times by now
~You ALWAYS know when payday is and get ticked off if there are more than 2 weekends during that pay period
~You know better than to go to the PX or commissary between 11:30 and 13:00 unless it's a life or death emergency
~You know that any reference to "sand" or a "box" describes NTC at Ft. Irwin, not your kid's backyard toys
~You know that "Ft. Puke" is a completely accurate description of Ft. Polk
~You find yourself explaining your husband's LES to him
~You have enough camouflage in your house to wallpaper the White House
~You don't have to think about what time 21:30 is
~You're the TC, not a backseat driver
~You start ripping open MREs and looking for the M&Ms when you run out of Halloween candy
~You stand for the National Anthem at a movie theatre
~The local dry cleaner knows you by your first name
~You find that a large number of your clothes and household items are olive drab or loam, even though you never planned it that way
~You pick apart uniforms on TV and in the movies, even though you used to yell at your husband for doing the same thing
~You have a stock in flat rate shipping boxes, in varying sizes.
~You’ve spent more time apart than you have together.
~When the cashier ask you for your zip code you just stand there and stare
~You wish you could go to CIF to DX your old stuff like your husband can
~You've learned to sleep through the sounds of tanks, planes, helicopters and artillery rounds
~You give your kids a hand receipt when they take your Tupperware to school
~You can hate military life but be terrified to leave it all in the same breath
~You defend your lifestyle no matter how bad things get because you know there's no other life for you.
MANY of these are soooo true!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
USA Bound!!
Just a quick update...we are heading to the USA next week. So after some time to adjust to the new timezone, which is 13 hours behind our current one, we should be rip, roaring and ready to get together with all the wonderful friends and family that we have been missing these last two years living in Korea.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Free Ultimate Membership for Military Members
The Old Schoolhouse Store is offering a free one year Ultimate SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership to all Active Duty, Reserve and Retired United States Armed Forces. This free membership gives you access to a members-only website with unlimited access to daily resources, daily recipe calendar, This Day in History Calendar, and more! Expert teachers in various subject areas like geography, history, home economics, literature, music/voice, and technology provide weekly, daily, and/or monthly lessons plus daily recipe and history calendars.
The value of this membership is $64.26. This offer is valid through December 31, 2013.
To sign up for your free SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership, click here.
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