This is so sad!

I remember seeing this story, and feeling so bad for these foster parents. It's hard to believe she's still in prison. WOW. The injustice in this world. This loving mother is in prison and not able to raise her own children, yet Casey Anthony goes free. Go here

Our Homeschool 2011-2012!!!

Here's our plan for the year!

First day of school: Sept. 6th
Miranda 4th grade
Lilyann Kindergarten
Lexi Lou preschool
Laney preschool

School Name: Hearts to God Homeschool or Snowberryfarm School or Wisdom Keepers Academy-still brainstorming!!
School Motto: Learn*Live*Serve*Give
School colors: Aqua blue
School Mascot: Horse/Elephant/Snow leopard

Subjects:
Miranda-
Bible, Morning devotions & prayer, Kay Arthur book, Awana, Bible journaling
Math-Singapore math
Reading-BJU
History-Mystery of History
Spelling-BJU 4
Language Arts-Language lessons for the elementary child by Sandi Queen
Science-BJU
Nature Study-various nature walks, journaling nature observations as we go.
Keyboarding-finished Dance mat typing last year, will be borrowing a program from a friend this year
Cursive-Loops, Hoops & Groups-finished last year, will be doing it again this year for review and to establish more consistent use of cursive handwriting
P.E.-Will be playing on a new homeschool basketball team, and starting a dance class
Fine arts-Piano lessons, art/drawing, study of famous painters, Shakespeare, hand crafts

Lilyann-
Bible-morning devotions and prayer, Awana
Reading-Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons-love this, and taught Miranda to read at age 4 with it!
Writing-various workbooks to practice letters and short words
Language Arts-Lessons for little ones by Sandi Queen
Art-lots of cutting, gluing, drawing, creating!
Fine Arts/P.E.-dance class

Co-ops-We will continue in the two co-ops we have done for sevaral years, plus I am starting a new one. Country Study Co-op, where we study a country each month, then meet together with our group at the end of the month for an ethnic potluck and to listen to each child's presentation on that country.
Friday Forum-A local christian co-op that we attend once a month and the children have 4 classes they attend ranging from science, to book report, to art. This year Miranda is taking a drawing class, Lilyann is taking a camp crafts class, and they will both be in a few other classes with homeschoolers their age.
I am starting a Keepers at Home group with 7 other girls we know. We are going to start with quilting, and for the next few months the girls will be meeting together 2x per month to work on quilting projects. We have a quilting instructor and everything...can't wait to see how this goes!
Field Trips-I am one of the field trip co-ordiators for our local homeschool organization. We will also have 2-3 field trip options to go on every month, as well as other events that are planned throughout the year.

Whew! I am exhausted already, and who said homeschoolers are deprived and don't have enough socialization??? I would love to cut down our schedule but I don't know how! I do know we will take breaks when needed...one more week of summer break, then we start!

I interrupt this nice little blog...

to vent my frustration!!! My patience has been tested in every direction I turn this week, and it's only tuesday!! What is going on?? I admit, I have now developed a bad attitutude, and I know this will pass, but let me just share what I have dealt with recently...

-I called my vet on sat. to have them fax records to my brothers vet since I gave one of my cats to him. They assured me they would fax everything that morning. Today I find out they never faxed a thing.

-Yesterday I called LexiLou's Dr. to try to get a referral to a dermatologist so I can begin to address all the skin issues she has. I left my home phone number for them to call and said to only call my cell if there was no answer at home. What does the nurse do? She calls my cell, and leaves a message for me to call back, and never calls my home phone. I then attempt to call back, and they have a new system and you can't get through to anyone!!! Arghh!!!!!!!

-Today I stopped by the hospital (where I am still currently employed, but haven't worked at since Dec. 1st due to not getting their flu shot) to congratulate a friend on her new baby and security stops me and won't let me go up to her room. Why? Because Lexi was with me, they wouldn't allow it, as they only allow children of the family/patient to visit at this hospital. This hospital and it's policies!!! I will refrain from stating what I really think about their policies! >:(

-Today we wake our youngest foster daughter up early from her nap so she is ready in time for the transporter to pick her up for visitation with her parents, and then the transporter never shows, and never calls, until 45 min. late when you have just strapped the child into the high chair for lunch, and are no longer ready to send her out the door. Yep, that happened today, too.

-We filed our taxes last march and still have not recieved the remainder of our refund-which is a significant amount from our adoption of Lilyann. Since the laws changed this year, we were supposed to recieve the rest of it back in our tax refund. We did not, along with thousands of others across the country, and we are among those now being audited. We continue to recieve letter after letter from the IRS, and I know of so many families that are dealing with the same thing. The only ones that have gotten their return have obtained a tax advocate. I called today to get one, and after being on hold for 30 minutes, I was told we didn't really qualify, until I explained the situation once again the poor guy finally decided to assign us one. We will now wait for the tax advocate to call us.

-Although I dearly love my little girls, why are they so messy? I don't think they understand that they are not to take their diapers off themselves when they wake up from their naps. Yesterday I walked into the room after nap time to get them, and not only had they each taken their diapers off in their individual cribs, they each peed in their cribs, and miss LexiLou proceeded to diaper her teddy bear with her soaking wet diaper, lol. She was so proud and held it up for me to see when I walked in the room.

-Satellite t.v. We have had satellite t.v. for years. I called a different provider yesterday to see what they had to offer and to attempt to downgrade what we have now. To my amazement, I had to agree to an automated voice to sign on with them before I was allowed to speak to a real person. When I finally got to a real person, the guy actually asked for my name, address, email AND social security number BEFORE he listend to my questions. And, no, I did not give him most of this information, but I was stunned at how much information they attempted to get out of me and what a hard sell they were doing from the beginning. This is one of the two major networks that are out there. I promptly decided not to go with this provider!

-The pharmacy. So LexiLou has severe allergies we have now found out. Tree nuts can be deadly to her. She is also allergic to cats and dogs. After a visit to the allergist, we have now been prescribed epi pens that we will each be carrying around with us at all times. I tell the allergy Dr. where our pharmacy is, and they called in the prescription. I get there and they tell me the Dr. office made a mistake and sent it across town to their other store. I drive across town to the other store and go in to pick up the epi pens. They are the slowest pharmacy around. After standing there for literally an hour while they are trying to pull this together, they come back and tell me they don't have enough, and I will need to come back the next day. Thanks.

I think I am losing faith in people. I know I am getting tired of people, policies, procedures. I know that is one reason why I am so glad I am no longer working out of the home. Yes, I loved the families I worked with and the great kids, but the meetings were getting to me. I had the worst attitude when attending meetings at my workplace! I am sorry, but I could care less about the latest policy and procedure, let's get back to the real stuff! My thing is, let's just make things simple. Just call the number given, let children visit in hospitals, do what you say you're going to do, be somewhere when you say you will be there, and everything will be fine. But, that's not life, unfortunately, and I have to deal with it. Ok, I feel better now. Maybe this blog will go back to being nice, and positive, cheerful and uplifting next time, but today...today it's just real.

Homeschool Planning!

Every year about this time, I am deep in my homeschool planning. I do wait until the last minute, but it always seems to work. I get really excited about all that we have to learn and look forward to all year. This year is no exception. I am always so thankful for this gift to be able to homeschool my children. I am overwhelmed by the amount of wonderful curriculum that is out there, and the ability we have as homeschooling parents to pick and choose what best suits each individual child. That is one of the best things about homeschooling. Your children are not subjected to the institionalized public schooling, but they get to learn and grow using tools and approaches that best meet their needs. The most wonderful thing I have seen so far is that my children LOVE to learn. I cannot say that about myself. I hated school growing up. I didn't love learning at all. Another perk is that I am learning right along with my children! I have some fun plans this year, and some of the curriculum we are adding this year is going to be excellent, I know it already! Add to that the co-ops and activities we are planning and it is lining up to be one VERY full year. In my next post I am going to share all that we are doing for our upcoming homeschool year...come back and take a peek!

Fatherless Friday

Today, this beautiful friday morning in my part of the world there are millions of children suffering. From infants to teens, there are tears, pain, and hearts breaking all over the world. I am so grateful for this thing called blogging, as it can bring this reality to the forefront for us all, as those that are there can show us-holding an orphan that hasn't been touched in weeks, feeding the dying, and loving the babies some societies have turned away from. Some are there after months and years of drudging through tremendous adoption paperwork, and fundraising all they could to raise the funds to get their children home, where they can finally be nurtured, loved and well cared for. Some lives are literally saved by those that answered the call to adopt. We all need to pray, we all need to do something as the need is so, so great.

Read this post, entitled fatherless friday.

My girls!

I don't often try taking pictures of all 4 of my girls...as it is not an easy task...it seems to get more and more difficult with each new child. Here we have one child that can't ever find her normal smile, and two toddlers that are just learning what picture taking is all about!

Not bad, but I hope we can do even better next time! Smile!

Precious one...

Miss LexiLou, how lucky we are to have you in our lives!! You are such a blessing. From the moment I brought you home at 7 weeks of age, and you smiled up at me, I knew there was something so precious and special about you. We are so blessed to have such a sweet, precious, child. Your spirit is contagious. Your love is pure. You make us laugh so hard, and fill our hearts with joy. Joy...a word that we have always associated with you...and as your upcoming adoption approaches...it comes to mind that it just might fit you perfectly as your middle name. Hmmm? Lexi Joy, I like that. It fits you well. Bless you my sweet child...

She'll be a fashion designer...

I never played with Barbies as a child. I never sewed. I never really had the opportunity to be creative. I am so glad my kids have that opportunity. Miranda has always had a knack for creativity, and over the years people have given her barbie dolls, and she always makes outfits for them. She even does it all without sewing, which impresses me even more. Above is her latest design. Not bad. Very natural and unique, wouldn't you say? Would you wear that out on the town? Barbie definately would!!

Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. Time4Learning can be used for homeschool, afterschool and summer skill sharpening. Be sure to come back and read about my experience.

We ventured out!!!

The other day, we decided to pack up and head over to Seattle for a couple of days. This was pretty adventurous of us...as we aren't often brave enough to take all 4 of them on trips with us!  Here's Jeff and Lilyann on Seattle's monorail, heading to the Seattle center, where we went up on the Space needle!

This was the best photo we could get with all 4 of them. Here we are down at the waterfront by the Pike Place market. One of my favorite places of all time!

This is from the top of the Space Needle. Lilyann is enjoying herself now, but when we first told her we were going up, she asked, "why would we do that??"

This guy was cool. Walking around downtown Seattle, we came across this statue, only it's not a statue...it's a real live man. Lilyann screamed and ran every time he moved!

We got to the Pike Place market right at opening time. Picture about 400 people crowding around this photo about 10 minutes later. It is packed, and very difficult to walk through yourself, or for that matter, with 4 kids, and two strollers! We loved picking out fresh fruit for breakfast and enjoyed the atmosphere...until we were squeezed out by the crowds!

Lilyann enjoying the sun. We left the market and spent time on the waterfront shopping, sightseeing, and before we came home, we had lunch. All four of the girls did really well. It was the perfect two day getaway!

Update!

Well, sort of.
We have been literally overwhelmed with life lately.
Having a one AND two year old in the house is something I don't think many people understand until they try it. It is hard. It can be stressful. But, it is a hard and stressful endeavor that I love, and at the end of the day, I am glad it is my life. I can now relate to people with twins, or triplets. I Know what it means to have multiple children with multiple needs. Our 5 year old, miss Lilyann, is having some issues we are dealing with...post to come at a later date, and helping my almost 10 year old channel her energy and talents into a few places has been challenging as well!

My life is disorganized at the moment, with housework, homeschool planning, adoption paperwork, and more. I plan to focus on that in the next few days to get my head cleared of it all...then I will be back to blogging more regularly.

Blessings!