:)

Learn the dance.. Live the dance.. Teach, talk and dance the dance!


"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John 1:4

Saturday, December 18, 2010

We have a new van! :)

I cannot express to you how happy I am to say that! 

:D

The tricky part is that the van is a diesel, and is a manual transmission.  I haven't driven a manual for oh, 8 years?  (Tiffany, if you or Mihailo are reading this, stop laughing)! Last night, we piled the kids in the van after watching kids for the BN social, and headed home.  Took me a few minutes to remember how to reverse without stalling. :P  (In my own defense, the gear shift isn't marked at all).  Oh, and it snowed yesterday, so it was a tiny bit slick.  Anyhow, I proceeded to make it about halfway home, and was doing fine until I came to a hill.  With a stop sign at the top of it.  Oh goody.  (Yes, Tiff, it was exactly like the one we got stuck at all those years ago).  :D  Topping it off, there are cabs behind me and buses driving to the intersection I was at.. lol.. I am laughing so hard, trying to wave all these people through the intersection while attempting to find the hazard lights. I wish the van had a sign that said STUDENT DRIVER.  Then at least they would understand.. :)

Anyhow, we made it home with no further incidents (ok, except for when it slid into 3rd instead of 1st and when I downshifted it shuddered really bad), and I have just realized that now I have to figure out how to get up and out of the parking garage the next time I drive! 

Anyhow, that's all for now.  Sorry, no pictures yet of the newest addition to our house.  The kids have friends over, and now that they've finally decided to stop arguing and leave me alone, I need to capitalize on it. :)  Dishes, laundry, recycling oh my!  I also have to lug car seats down to the van, now that we don't have to lug them in and out of taxis. :)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I can't believe its almost Christmas!

Well, here we are almost to the end of another year.  This one has been a great adventure so far.  We have been stretched in ways I never could have imagined, and we are so much the better for it. 

I am on the fence about my decision to put Jacob in school.  At the time, it sounded like a good fit for him, but now I'm not sure.  Petty problems with the school are not what I'm talking about, I'm more worried about the part that makes him say, " Mom, I don't like school anymore."  When I asked him why, he said, " Because I already know everything!"

How's that for honesty? 

I understand that kindergarten is not supposed to be a whole heck of a hard time.. but I keep circling back to feeling like I failed him because we were already breezing through his first grade work with no problem, and now he's stuck going over the alphabet and colors and shapes.  The only writing they do is journal time in the morning, and I can't really tell if they do much with math.  I'm sure they do, since even small things have to do with math, but he was used to the worksheets he did here at home, and they definitely don't do that. 

Part of me wants to say, to heck with it all, and pull him back out.  Part of me wonders if it will set a really bad example for him if I do that.  Part of me says, oh, he'll get used to any routine that a school uses, if we put him in school a couple of years from now.  He can adapt, he's a child. 

I want him to like school, and always want to learn new things.  Right now, I'm afraid that he's coasting, because there isn't much expected of him.  Maybe I should ask to come to school for a day, and see what all they do on a normal day.  Maybe they do more than I think they do, based on what I hear from him at the end of the day, and what little bit of information the teacher sends home.  I don't want his love of learning to be extinguished because they don't challenge him.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that at home, I said, ok, we are going to do this, and we did it.  I dont want him to conform to the school system and only do the minimum.  He didn't know that he was going to do new things, I just presented them as normal work each day.  lol. Im having a hard time expressing what I want to say for some reason.  I'll come back to it another time.

We only really have a couple more Christmas gifts to purchase, and then we are finished.  Except for each other.  Its always hard to shop for Jon. :P  The things he wants, he will notice if I buy them, because of the emails or bank statements. Cait has asked for the Fur Real Friends white cat.... that has a huge price tag.  I'm still trying to decide if its worth it to get it for her, since its really the only thing she's asked for over and over and over.  The other things we have gotten her are from the Christmas money that Grandma and Papa sent.  Jacob is getting his DSi XL, because I found a bundle pack here at the PX and jumped all over it before it got snapped up.  Maybe this will keep them off my iphone.  I have my doubts.  I wondered if getting him this system would be a bad idea, but really, with all the time we spend on trains going places, its nice to have a way to distract him.  And he's been very good at choosing to turn off the games lately.  He's pretty limited in time to play, so he only gets to go hog wild on the weekends. 

3 more days til holiday break!  Jon and I are going to pray about it, research some different curriculums and decide for good whether or not Jacob will return to school after the break.  We may possibly just let him finish the year, while simultaneously doing a couple of his first grade things in the afternoons and on weekends.  Pray for us, will you?  We want to make the right decision for our family, and for Jacob in particular.