I Couldn't Make This Stuff Up!

May 20, 2012

Nat got a new headband made by Kelly! She loves it. The girls modeled our new tshirts. Book fair arrived Thursday.

May 13, 2012

Happy Mothers Day! We had a great weekend here.

May 7,2012

Pics from our Phoenix trip girls weekend. So much fun love our time together!

Ugh!

This month has been a challenge. We had Spring Break which was so so needed the begininning of the month. The kids wanted to go to Nana and Papa's for Spring Break so we met them halfway and they stayed a few days before Tim and I went to join them. We celebrated Easter there and then came home to get back into our routine.

Homeschooling is going okay. We have what I would describe as our good days and then our really tough days. I'm learning that the end of the week gets tougher as far as Benjamin focusing and getting his work done. Everything seems to be overwhelming to him by Friday. I get that. I do, because I feel the same way many weeks. He is a smart kid that just has so little self motivation some days. I still don't regret the decision we made to do this. I still believe it was absolutely the right thing to do for him. There are certain curriculum we will use again next year and through the summer and there is others we will change for next fall. I think we will shift to more online classes for a couple of subjects. We're figuring this out. It is taking time but we're getting it and thank goodness for google.

Maddie is struggling a bit lately with a variety of different things but mostly because she was sick all last week. We couldn't figure out what it was but Monday she threw up before school and then just felt yucky Tuesday. That evening she started complaining her ear hurt. Wednesday morning I made her a Dr appointment and thought her ear had ruptured but it was what he said is swimmers ear. She's always had ear issues but this time it really was painful. It's different from when she had ear infections. She got some drops after a couple of different pharmacy visits and we probably need to look at finding a different Dr. The last few times we've been in I just haven't been real pleased.

Thursday she threw up again before school and her ear still was hurting. Friday she was running a fever of 101 or better. She'd had a 99 degree temp most of the week on and off. Friday she was just lethargic and miserable. Natalie is fearful of her germs and her puking in general and avoids her which causes hurt feelings and tears. She's equally fearful of her germs and worried about Maddie's health I've decided the last few days.

Monday she threw up before school again and I sent her anyway. She's missed a bunch of school and once she throws up breakfast she eats fine the rest of the day and keeps it down. It's this weird pattern. Yesterday same thing but I'd had it and called the Dr and got an appointment. We saw the PA who I like more than the Dr at this point and she gave Maddie some meds for reflux. We gave her one last night and this morning she kept her breakfast down.

I've been really worried about her wondering so many different things. Is she having problems with someone bothering her at school? Is she having anxiety? I talked to her and she swears she isn't. I am at school enough to peek in on her that I do believe her. I think she is genuinely having stomach issues and praying this helps her get through these last few weeks of school.

This year seems to be the year of health issues for many people I know. It's been a stressful start to the year. I'm ready for spring and the hope that summer will follow. It was 91 degrees here Monday and we had an amazing lightning storm that night. Today was in the 70's I had to dig out shorts for the kids and capris. Life goes on.

We all went to a volunteer appreciation last night at the school board meeting. I was chosen from the kids' grade school for all the volunteering I do. We have so many great volunteers at the kids' school.  The kids were pretty proud I think. It was nice and they are still the reason I do all I do, it's for them.

I think that's about all for now. We are hanging in here. It's a three day weekend this weekend for Tim but Natalie has a dentist appointment to get cavities filled and I'm dreading it. Life is busy as usual and I spend a lot of time in the our silver bus of a suburban which I still love, but it's good for the most part when I'm not cleaning puke up. It could be worse this I know. It could always be worse and someone else out there has it much worse than we do this I know. What's that saying if we all threw our problems in a pile we'd grab ours back quick. This is true. . .oh so true.

Apr 17, 2012

Easter pictures from the farm. Mariners opening day.

Mar 24, 2012

Natalie got her first library card this week. I asked her if she wanted to put her books in my bag but she said no. "I want to carry my books cause smart people carry books!"
This week Benjamin started his classes at the new school. He's continuing his viola and PE. We're finding our way and it's going pretty well.
Then Friday Benjamin got his braces off!! Woohoo for his handsome new smile.
"The Hunger Games" movie came out Friday! Mom, Benjamin and I went to see it. It was awesome!!
We were trying out our Lorax app with Maddie. It was a good week.
Oh and the drawing is Natalie's. She was angry at me for asking her to write 2 sentences each day. She didn't have school this week because of conferences. She's not wanting to write her full name so I thought her journaling at hind might help. This was the journaling I got. That child I swear! Haha!

Mar 17, 2012

We've been busy lately getting into this homeschool thing we've started. Then we took a trip to great wolf lodge with great friends of ours. The last couple of weeks have been a blur, but I'll try to get caught up here.

We're officially set up for homeschooling now and have come to a compromise with Benjamin's old middle school. They asked if we would like to have him continue with orchestra and or pe there with them. We talked to Benjamin and though it now involves taking him each day he was wanting to continue with the orchestra. I've liked his orchestra teacher a lot. She's had him the past two years and seems to know him and really enjoy having him in class. I'm not sure if this is something we'll continue to do for the next year right now we're just focusing on getting through this year, day by day.

We had the chance to watch Lilly for the evening last weekend. The kids fought over holding her. Baby hogs all of them! I had to finally tell them she was tired so I could get my chance to rock her to sleep. She's the sweetest!

This is the kids at Great Wolf Lodge. Maddie was less than thrilled as she had just dueled the dragon 3, yes 3 times and lost. It was a bit ugly. The girls were both fighting the cruddy cold stuff. I took Benjamin in the week before we left and he had a sinus infection and the dr gave him antibiotics. Then Friday Tim was still snotty and soundy yucky again and the girls too. They went in to the Dr that morning before we left and sure enough Tim had a sinus infection again! That makes a flu bug, pneumonia, sinus infection and then another one for this year so far. We think the last sinues infection never really got better and just flared up again even worse.

We took it pretty slow at Great Wolf Lodge. We had to still go because the great deal we got on the reservations was non refundable. Oh well, they can be feeling less than stellar at home or at the Lodge. We still had a really good time and loved the trip. Thanks Nana for going with us! Great memories!

Last night Heidi and Miranda came over to have cake and drinks. We worked on counting the butterbraid fundraiser up. It was nice to have some help.

I'm figuring out the schedule for homeschooling little by little and getting Benjamin's required hours in. I am still often amazed at the things he doesn't know and wasn't taught. In a way I feel badly we didn't catch this before but on the other hand I have to wonder what the heck is going on in public education. It seems to me that the standards have been so severly lowered that kids are just going through the motion. I am now more than ever positive we made the right choice withdrawing Benjamin for the bulk of his classes. The system is failing our children. I will now make sure that he learns everything he should be learning.

Tim was looking through our curriculum book. He was amazed to see it's from 1999. The part that is amazing is the amount of information that simply isn't taught anymore. In just 13 years the standards have been greatly lowered.

This week brought an ear infection for Maddie. She's on antibiotics now and hoping to get rid of the crud in our house. Other than all that, we're doing good. Chugging along. This is what our day looked like today. A little reading, a lot of just laying about. Hope your weekend was a good one too.

I won't give up

I drove across town today to get a map of the US because we've discovered that they don't teach the kids states anymore in school. Natalie is home today because it's her Wednesday off from kindergarten. Benjamin's starting to feel better now that he got antibiotics for his sinus infection but we needed to get out of the house for a bit so I took them to lunch at a chinese place across town. As we drove back from the teacher supply store this song came on the radio. For obvious reasons it could easily be my motto now. It made me teary. 

Last night was tough there were tears and frustration as Tim and I try to muddle our way through what Ben has maybe learned this year and what we have left to teach him. I found out our learning plan was due in today. I only learned yesterday how to go about it and didn't get a login until 4pm. Right now it seems overwhelming, because the more we ask the more realize he didn't learn as much as he should have this year. We get the feeling that they are only teaching these kids to pass the standardized testing they give in the state and it makes us furious. How can they do this to our kids? It makes us pause and think, we really can't do any worse on our own can we?

Yesterday, Tim found out he will have to travel for 2 weeks next month. As we sat here last night and he told me about the vitamins he'd ordered yesterday to help his blood pressure that is apparently on the rise, I started laughing. I thought one of the "old people" on our amazon account had ordered something to our address by accident and went in and cancelled the order. Opps! We both just laughed because let's face it if you don't laugh you'll cry.

We don't feel alone, as we've been offered a lot of support these past couple weeks. If anything we've felt blessed by the encouragement and offers of help. It means more than you know. "I won't give up. . . even if the times get rough."

How do you know?

This past week has been the start of our family moving down a different road, not a bad road just a different one. The things that have happened to lead us to where we are now are things I never thought we'd have to deal with. Tim and I have had to decide how do you know when it's time to change something huge for your child? When do you say enough is enough and I won't accept mediocre any longer? What do you do when you see that the system is so clearly failing your child?

After long hours of consideration and many many tears on my part we've decided to withdraw Benjamin from the middle school he's been attending. We've seen him be bored for too long. He's not being challenged and he's a smart kid and we're disappointed with his overall middle school experience he's had. The middle school he has been attending has 1600 kids in it. It is the largest in the whole state of Washington and it was never intended to be. The school was built for 900 children and things are a nightmare there. It is no one persons fault it's just the way things are right now. Until the school district can get the growth under control we were no longer comfortable risking Benjamin's education any further.

So we found a good alternative that is partial homeschool, partial public school in another district nearby. This was the best option we could see for now. It doesn't mean we will never put Benjamin back in public school, and we looked at private schools as well, but they are extremely costly. And that's not to say that we didn't have offers from both wonderfully supportive Grandparents to help us in any way they could. We could possibly figure something out for the cost issue but we just want to try this for now.  I wish so many things were different. For one I wish charter schools were allowed in the state of Washington. I also wish there were vouchers available for education so we as parents had more choices for our children.

I feel as if at the beginning of this year I really wanted this middle school to have a chance. The more I saw the less enthusiastic I was. It's such a catch 22 you hope the more involved you are in the school process the more you'll be reassured, but in the end let's face it the more you see sometimes the more frustrating it is. There is such a push nowadays for these kids to grow up so quickly. I don't agree with that. What is wrong with allowing kids to be kids for a little longer? Why must we force them to be adults at 12? I just don't understand it.

I've talked to so many people the past few days and I appreciate them being willing to share their experiences. I am so incredibly scared for what we are doing, but deep down know that this is the right thing to do for Benjamin right now. I was one of those people that swore up and down I would never homeschool my children, that I couldn't. I always thought homeschoolers were "crazy" and I think it does have that stigma attached to it. I don't care what other people think anymore I only want to see Benjamin succeed and I think Tim and I are the key to that. We can be his teachers. We can do this. I will tell you, you don't know what you're capable of until you are in the moment and you see your child unhappy. I know now that I would do anything, try anything to see Benjamin happy again and excited to learn. I still have moments where I go between excited to get started and severe doubt, just because I'm weary of the unknown.

Benjamin for his part is excited to try something different. He's always been a pretty easy going kid. We are going to keep him in the sports he's been involved with. That is usually the first question people ask us. That or how will he be able to socialize with kids his age? We think the classes he will be taking will do that and the sports we'll keep him in. We'll take it day by day for now and see how it goes.

This is going to be a new journey for us. I'm being realistic and trying to keep in mind there will be hard days. I will probably still doubt myself from time to time. I think that's normal. Our greatest fear is doing something that will mess our children up in any way. Well more than him being born into our family already has. Kidding. Gotta laugh or you'll cry. It's a good motto.

Anyway I'm writing about all of this not to try to spill our whole story out in the internets but because it helps to get it all down in writing. It eases my fears in a way. I've also asked Benjamin if he cares if I share our story on here and he doesn't. Maybe it will help someone else somewhere to hear our story, but even if it just helps us that's enough for me right now.

Feb 19, 2012

We drove over to Seattle this weekend to celebrate our niece Charlotte's birthday this weekend. A princess birthday. Which explains the crowns. We've had a nice visit and are hoping to get back over the snowy pass as its had a couple feet of snow added to it the last 24 hours.
Just iPhone pics for now. More later!