Parenting Fail

I just realized something awful. I have conditioned my children and not in a good way. *Sigh. Now I have to fix it.

It started with jumping on the trampoline.

Changing Bad Habits One Week At A Time

Summer is really great for taking a break (obviously from school, nothing else stops for the summer) and regrouping. If I notice that a specific child is going to need to work on something, I usually try to survive until summer. Then I can dedicate more time to training. Sometimes it is teaching a child to behave better, teaching a skill like potty training before school starts, or building good habits that make the day flow better.

Time Marches On

Here it is; exactly one year between blog posts. My blog has changed so many times and has become so many different things that I even considered deleting it because of my inability to define or contain it. It used to be a great way to share with my family but I was just filling up the pages with photos and videos. That is what Facebook is for. At one point, I wanted to use it as an outlet for journaling my experiences in marriage, parenting, and ministry. I have a couple of journals for that.
But I do wish to write.
I love to write.
So write, I shall....
     
                          ......as soon as I know what to write about.

Things I learned my first year of homeschooling

Now that school is finally over for our family, I can relax. Our first year is done. The kids actually were not that excited about summer break. They enjoyed the structure of a school day and now summer presents for them hours of boredom especially since I won't allow them to fill the schooling hours with Xbox. This break is actually going to be more for mom than them. I need a little time where my 'to do list' doesn't involve several hours doing school. I also need the time to work on some areas of training and establishing habits that need to occur with a couple of children before adding school hours back in.

The following are four things that I learned during my first year of homeschooling.

My Ninjas

Recently, my boys received their edition of the Lego Club magazine. In it, was a tutorial on how to take a t-shirt and turn it into a Ninjago mask. All the next day they were ninjas. When I posted this picture to Facebook, I found out that other Moms everywhere were experiencing the same "ninja phenomenon".

Bekah wasn't in the original picture because she needed and "attitude adjustment".

What were we thinking....

At least I have a spot that I can contain them in...for hours at a time.

Field trip

While we were in Liberal, Kansas for the Lego competition, we decided to stop by the air museum and mark it down as a field trip day for school. We also had the joy of having grandma and grandpa from Colorado there with us. We greatly enjoyed taking them on our field trip.

Jr. FLL Lego club

Micah and Josiah were able to participate in a LEGO Club through our local homeschool co-op. It took them several months to research their topic, brainstorm, and then build their creation from legos. They learned the concept of teamwork and how to build simple machines. When they were finished the team went out of town with their project and were able to compete against other kids from all across the state of Kansas and even Oklahoma.

Their team won "most cooperative".

Anah doing school

Anah has been trying to do more school with us. I haven't been working with her hardly any this year. I've kinda just tolerated her and tried to keep her busy. Summer will be here soon and when the big kid's school year ends, I will start little kid schooling. For Anah this will pretty much mean that she will be learning number awareness and letter sounds. I found this printable of Q-tip painting numbers at 1+1+1=1.

Normally, I don't do paint. I don't have the patience to monitor it or clean it up. The nice thing about this was it wasn't messy! It takes very little paint to cover a q-tip and the space they actually paint on is a very small, non-messy space. Win-Win for mom :-)

Snow day

Moriah

This little video is just for fun. Chris was using the video recorder on his phone and Moriah was watching herself while it was recording.

10th Anniversary

I love my life. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. 10 years ago today, Chris Jones and I began this crazy journey that is our life. He has given me five of the most beautiful  children ever created and one precious baby we will meet in heaven. We have moved 4 times in 10 years and no matter where I live, I am right where I want to be and that is beside the man I adore and couldn't live without. He is a wonderful father, loving husband, and the anchor in our family. He's not perfect but neither am I. Not a day goes by that I shouldn't thank God for this man. Some days I forget to; the days when life gets in the way and kids are loud and messy but when I watch him lead our family and train our children, my heart explodes with love and gratitude for him. God has blessed us in ways that money and materials can't even compare to. People only see the outside: what size house we have, what cars we drive, how much we make a year, and how expensive our large family is. They don't see the love and tenderness in our family. The happiness and joy God has given us despite sometimes having nothing. But I would rather live in a box with him than be seperated. As we look towards our next 10 years and then the 10 years after that, and eventually the rest of our lives, I know that no matter what God has in store for us, the richer or poorer, sickness or health, it would be an honor to spend it by his side, enouraging him and loving him.

Christmas snacks

Quite often I have to remind myself that sometimes we need some down time as a family and even if we aren't on schedule or I feel like we should still be working on our "to do" list, the kids need some fun time and some messy time!

The Christmas treat that we made was chocolate covered marshmallows and Christmas colored sprinkles. Talk about a sugar bomb!

Pioneer Day at Co-op

I very much enjoy the activities that we are able to participate in with our co-op. This year we were able to participate in pioneer day. The kids were allowed to dress up and participate in activities like candle making, indian craft, and a history lesson.

Super cute pictures!

Hi Mom! I know I'm cute! 

Happy Baby :-)

Getting some fresh air

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch

Josiah

I am still trying to figure how this whole blog thing works. I finally figured out how to get Josiah's video on here. Sorry the quality is low.

Mountain View Christian Academy

Mountain View Christian Academy had it's first official field trip! This homeschool mom is still learning the ropes and I realized a little too late that I should have planned ahead for our field trip. I had heard from some church friends that the local pumpkin patch was only going to be open one more weekend so I tried to book a daytime tour but found out they were all booked. We ended up just going Saturday night during public hours.

It was beautiful going in the evening. The patch closed at 7p and the sunset was breathtaking. It was so enjoyable to watch the kids run and play in the field at sunset. I would love to live in the county someday!

Falling behind....again

It seems like no matter how much I try to stay on track with blogging it always gets away from me. A couple of things have happened since my last post.

1. Moriah starts table food!

It only took my five children to figure out that it is easier to feed a baby mashed up table food than to keep jars and jars of baby food on hand. I've even tried making all my own baby food but it never really worked out well for me. But this table food stuff is a good fit! I had to throw some parenting ideas out the window like 'try a food for five days to see if she has a reaction' and 'always start with rice cereal'. She would gag at rice cereal but would do great with a fork and a whole banana. We've also mastered apple sauce and sweet potatoes. Mashed potatoes and melted cheeses are also yum.

2. Josiah said his books of the Bible before the whole church. I have it on video but for some reason cannot upload it to my blog :( His award for his achievement is a grown up Bible with his name on the front of it.

God is my strength

As I sit down to write this I'm both exhausted and overwhelmed. I have been struggling this week. Thanks to a nursing baby who doesn't sleep through the night, a potty training two year old who refuses to poop in the potty, and three homeschool students who want mom's undivided attention, my patience is thin and my attitude crummy. Right now I'm clinging to the passage in 1 Cor. 7:24 that talks about living as God has called you. God has called me to be a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. Even though it is hard.

Today my house looks like it threw up. We made more messes then we cleaned up. I have laundry that will need to be rewashed if it sits in piles on the floor any longer. Our homeschool year so far has been sloppy.  I know veteran homeschool moms tell us newbies that it takes time to establish a routine but sometimes that advice isn't very helpful on a bad day. But God has called me to teach my children just as much as he has called me to have them. He is faithful to provide me with adequate grace for each new day. I was recently challenged during a Bible study to view this phase of my life with the thought that right now, God is calling me to obedience, not efficiency. Again that isn't very helpful when you are so far behind on dishes that you have nothing to cook with and if you did, you have nothing to eat it on. Like I said, it has been one of those weeks. But when I realized God was searching my heart (and wanted to help me get rid of that crummy attitude) and not judging me on the cleanliness of my home, it freed me. It freed me to sit and spend time with my children, to pull aside the toddler that has behaved so bad lately and snuggle with her, to take the time to train older children, and to do something fun instead of trying so hard to finish our 'to do' list by the end of the day. By doing that I relieved some of the stress and uptightness I had placed on our home. And when I do that it gives me a little bit of fresh air and just enough renewal to push on another day. God has called me to this and he wishes for me to praise Him even when times are tough. I just have to trust Him that when I "seek ye first the kingdom of God" and allow Him to work in me as an example to my children, He will help me care for the little things like laundry and dishes.

A Fresh Start

This Monday is going to be a fresh start for me. I need this quite often, usually once a month. If it has been a rough spell, I will have a fresh start two or three times that month. Sometimes my fresh start happens on a Monday but they also can happen on a Saturday or Sunday. Any other day and I just try to hang on until the weekend. We have had a lot of upsets to our schedule lately including special services at church and the cousins visiting.

We officially started school in July but have only been going two or three days a week. Now it is time to step it up a notch and get back in the swing of things. Rebuilding a routine is always necessary when trying to return your household to normal. I love the ebook Return of the Routine from 

southernhodgepodge. I have read through it many times and it always helps me get started again. And it's free!

So here's to a new week and a fresh start...

Did I mention I'm going to start potty training my 2 year old tomorrow?

It's going to be a long week.