Weekly Wrap-Up–The one with the Blahs

We were in Rockville last weekend so I didn’t have time for an update so I’m rolling the last two weeks together.  We went to Rockville to celebrate Grandma Nicola’s birthday.

 

It was really good for me to get out of the house and town for a few days.  The week before was really a blah week.  After a week of excessive grumbling and complaining from the kids I was ready to pack up and leave town for a few days, even if I had to take the kids along.   I heard on the radio that the 3rd week of January is typically the most depressing week of the year for people.  I was glad to hear I wasn’t the only one.  After hearing that, I decided to pick myself up and do what needed to be done regardless of how I was feeling. 

Here are our Top Five from the past 2 weeks

1. Going to Rockville.  It’s always nice to stare at someone else’s four walls for a few days.
2. The kids went to an Eagle watch at a power plant.  They were able to learn about birds of prey and see the birds up close.
3. The girls started Jterm at Heritage this week.  Hannah is taking a candy making class and skating lessons.  Rachel is taking a babysitter course and Equestrian lessons.  They were very disappointed with 3 snow days during the first week.  Praying for NO snow days this week. 
4. Hannah went on her first Winter Retreat with the middle school youth group this weekend.  She had a blast and I missed her terribly.
5. The kids learned how to play spoons at my dad’s.  It was so much fun and they LOVED it.  I haven’t played in probably 20 years, it was a blast! 

 

I hope you all had a great week!

The Weekly Five

I know, I know.  I’m not doing very well keeping up with this blog thing.  I enjoy keeping you all updated on our everyday lives and I know someday I’ll be glad I can go back myself so I’m going to try something new.  Insert “The Weekly Five”.  I’m going to try to  each week write about five things that happened during the week that will give you a peek into what we’re up to. 

This week’s Five

1. First I thought I’d share how Joe spends the first 20-30 minutes of each morning.  Yep, that’s Joe under that blanket, along with the heat register. (and yes his cereal bowl, *sigh*) It pretty much takes me threatening to take away everything he enjoys in life to get him out from under that blanket.  I don’t get too upset at him, I’d be there too if I had a choice. I love that kid. 
2.   Hannah is learning about earthquakes and volcanoes in science so she shared a Powerpoint with us on volcanoes.  Yep, that’s Rachel with her bunny in the background. It’s just all part of the slightly controlled chaos here each day. Later that day I had to tell her to get the rabbit off the table during school, pretty sure no teacher has had to say that, ever.

3.  I’ve started reading the Magic Tree House books with Ben to try to get him interested in chapter books.  Even though he fights me every day to sit and listen, about 2 pages in he gets hooked into the story.  This week we read Mummies in the Morning.  He liked it so much that he wanted to “do a movie” about it.  Matt was Jack, Rachel was Annie and of course Ben was the mummy. 

 

4.  Hannah took a photography class last semester at The Learning Community (TLC) and really liked it.  This week she and Rachel went outside and Hannah took TONS of pictures.  She started her own album on Facebook if you want to see more of her pictures.  Rachel was the subject of most of her sessions.  Even though I had to delete over 500 pictures I’m glad they found something to do together.

5.  I “caught” Ben reading a book to Jacob this week and though this was a cute shot of them.  Ben really liked watching Charlie Brown Christmas over break and I found some Peanuts books at the library.  He was very excited to read them. 

We didn’t do anything too exciting this week but we spent lots of time together and hopefully made some good memories. 

Hannah wrote this on the board and then took a picture of it.  It makes me smile.

Monthly wrap up???

Ok, so I’m a little behind on my weekly wrap-ups.  Perhaps monthly or even seasonal wrap ups may be in order???  HA!

So, this month we survived our first month of homeschooling!!!  We’ve been home for 4 weeks and A) my children are still alive and B) I still love them!!!  Overall, it’s going very well.  I admit I had pretty low expectations. Over the past 6 mos. I’ve had numerous people look at me in shock and say “ALL FIVE???”  “I will pray for you!”.  This left me thinking “what are all the homeschool moms online not telling me, because they seem to love it?”.  Well, for now I can say that I love it. (this may change mid-February)  These are my top 5 reasons

5)  Flexibility – Both in academics and in life.  Joe was struggling with the math program so we switched it and said goodbye to the frustration.  We can drop everything for a last minute field trip.

4)  NO homework in the evenings -  This was a huge stress for us for the last two years. Joe has practice 2 nights a week and the girls have games 2 nights a week but there’s no worries about when they’re going to get their work done. (this is Matt’s top reason)

3)  Time (see #4) - I feel like I’ve been given the gift of time with the kids.  Yes, what everyone has been telling me for the last 14 years is true – It goes SO fast! Hannah is going to be leaving us in 5 short years, and I am loving the ages the girls are right now.  So I am enjoying just being with them.

2) Lesson Planning  - I love all the organization of planning.  I love the books and getting things ready for the week.  Most weeks I don’t get through 1/2 of what I planned but I still enjoy doing it.  I’m sure I’ll get tired of it eventually but for now I really like it.

1) Less stress!! – Our days are so much more relaxed.  This has been the biggest blessing. It just seems to be a more relaxed lifestyle.  The mornings are quiet and relaxed, and the day just seems to have a nice flow.

The kids are adjusting better than I thought they would.  There are things they really like about it.  Getting up later, finishing by 1:00, no homework seem to be the top three.  They miss their friends a lot but they have made some new friends through sports and homeschool group.  I am so proud of them for their good attitudes and effort to meet new people. Volleyball has been wonderful for the girls.  The girls enjoy having my mom for History and English.  She comes here one day and we go there one day.  It seems to be a pretty good balance. 

Here are some pics of our first month

We went to the beach when everyone else was having their first day of school.  I knew the older three would struggle not going to school to see their friends so we enjoyed the empty beach for the afternoon and then got ice cream on the way home.

Our first field trip was to the Renaissance Festival with Grandma & Grandpa Nicola. 

  Joe is in the homeschool beginning band.  He is playing the saxophone.  He really looks forward to Tuesdays because his good friend Joe is also in the band.  Isn’t he cute in his shirt?

 

 

 

Fifi loves homeschooling because she gets to spend more time with Hannah. 

 

I can’t believe how fast the weeks are flying by.  I’m still welcoming those prayers because even though things are going surprising well it’s still not easy.  There are daily struggles with getting along, lack of motivation, (by both kids and mom) and bad attitudes.  There are days when I doubt myself and whether or not I can/should be doing this. I am finding that at the end of the day God has given me just enough grace to get through it.

But I had a plan….

I had a plan.  It was a great plan.  I even announced how wonderful my plan was to the world on my blog.  I couldn’t wait for summer vacation!  The kids would sleep in, I would have 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time to exercise, shower, pray, blog and get a head start to the day.  I had grand plans for the kids each morning to do a little chores, and schoolwork.  I made schedules. Laminated schedules.  We made a bucket list.  This was to be the summer I was proactive! No more “I’m bored”.  Then,

1. Ben decided that during his summer vacation he was going to get up at 6 a.m. every day to not waste one minute of his summer vacation.  Which makes for a very. long. day. for mom. 
2. The older kids rebelled against the 8:30 to bed, asleep by 9 plan which means unless mom and dad stay up until 11 there is zero alone/adult time.
3. It has been an all out mutiny against me and my plan to have them do ONE math assignment per day.  Well, except for Ben, he likes having his morning folder to do each day.
4. Screens. iPad, wii, Netflix, computer  It didn’t occur to me that my children had their own plan of moving from one source of technology to the other to fill up their summer.  Which has turned my summer into a full time job of Screen Police. 

So with these disruptions to my plans I’ve had arguing, grumpiness, whining and complaining.  Which means by 9:00 every morning I’m already irritated, frustrated, mad at my kids and bedtime is 12 hours away!  But I had a plan!!!  After calling and venting to a wonderful friend who is in the same trenches as me, she gave me some wise, encouraging  counsel.  First – Parenting is a marathon, not a sprint.  Raising my children to be productive, responsible adults will not happen in one week of summer vacation. Second – my kids are kids.  When I was thirteen would I have been jumping for joy at doing schoolwork  during my summer break? Um, no. 

So, it’s time to regroup.  I am going to stick with my original plan because I think it’s what’s best for my kids, but I’m not going to expect them to be excited about their laminated to- do list (even though they make my heart go pitter patter).  Instead of getting angry at them I’m going to use it as an opportunity to mold their and my character.  I really dislike it when I pray and ask God to change my children and the answer I consistently get is that I need to change :-/ 

Philippians 3:13   But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind me and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

Galatians 6:9   Let us not become weary of doing good.  For at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

Weekly Wrap Up

Summer vacation is finally here!   Now that everyone is out of school I feel like we can officially start our summer. Yay! 

The day after Hannah, Rachel & Joe’s last day of school they set off to Florida with my dad and Mary.  Mary’s brother lives in Pensacola so they stayed with him.  They saw the ocean for the first time, went on a dolphin cruise and swam a lot in the pool. (the ocean had red flags so they could only wade)  They were gone a whole week and I was very ready for them to be home.  They were very happy today to not be going anywhere in the car after the 14 hour drive to and from Florida!

Ben finished up his last week of school.  He was already showing signs of anxiety knowing his schedule was about to change.  He wanted to know “when can we start homeschool?”.  We celebrated his last day with a picnic lunch at a new park, ice cream and then a trip to the library to pick out some new books to start the summer.

On Thursday we started demolition of the kitchen.  New appliances are coming this week so we needed to tear out some cabinets and Matt is going to work on some electrical so we can plug them in when they arrive.  I feel like a 6 year old on Christmas Eve!  I can’t wait to get my new stove!!!  We’ve got the countertop and flooring ordered so now we just have to do the yucky stuff like drywall and tearing up ceramic tile. YUCK!  It’ll be worth it though!  I can’t wait.  I’m hoping to be mostly done by Jacob’s birthday party.

Ben had his first “friends” birthday party on Saturday.  He requested an Angry Birds cake so of course I went right to Pinterest to get some ideas.  He loved it and was a very happy boy for the day.  It was very different having a party for kids with Autism, they all had fun but didn’t interact too much together.  Which of course is natural for them, I just had to work at it not bothering me.  I enjoyed meeting the moms of his friends and you can almost feel this instant connection with them knowing what it’s like having a special needs child. Ben had a great time and that was the most important thing.  We had a great day celebrating him.

We couldn’t find the 8 candle so I asked him if we could just do 4+4.  Of course since he is obsessed with math facts he was very excited to use the addition problem.

On Sunday we had a very special breakfast with my dad.  I made waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  They were heavenly!  We had a relaxing morning and then headed to my mom and Art’s to spend the afternoon with my grandparents.  We ate and then sat in the shade watching the chickens and goats for entertainment.  Aaaaahhhhhhh,  Welcome Summer!!

Summer Bucket List

Every summer I start out with such ambition and good intentions and I end the summer discouraged because the time went so fast and I didn’t do half of the things I wanted with the kids. SO, this year I am being more thoughtful, intentional and proactive with our summer goals.  Thanks to a little help from Pinterest I have a ton of ideas and even help to see those ideas through to completion!!  Behold our Summer Bucket List!

Did you notice which ones are already checked off??? 

This poster could also be titled Mom’s Accountability Chart.

I am hoping that at the end of the summer the kids will be able to look at all the things we checked off and have happy memories of the time we spent together.  

This is me. I easily go back and forth between being super organized and on top of things until I get bored and need some excitement but then it seems like things fall apart and I have to cling to my schedule again.

Every summer I struggle with how scheduled we should be.  Of course our vacations are scheduled but I’m talking about scheduling our every day.  I want the kids to be able to relax and enjoy their summer break but it seems like if I don’t have some structure to the day the kids spend way to much time staring at screens and are “bored” by 10 a.m.  Now that we are a homeschool family I’ve decided to work on some subjects during the summer, hoping to allow us to be flexible around the holidays and be able to take time off whenever we’d like.  (see above pic)  Ben has already been asking about school at home this summer and I know he will benefit from having a set routine.  He gets anxious when he doesn’t know what to do or what’s coming up next.  So even though I know there will be some “but it’s our summer vacation” (insert whiney voice) I’m going to force myself to be the bad guy that will be seen as the good guy in the end.  Hopefully. 

Of course I’ll be sharing what we’ve been checking off our bucket list (hopefully) each week in my weekly wrap up.

Spring Wrap-Up

Thursday is our official start to summer vacation!  Jacob was done with school on May 31st, HCA was done June 7 and Ben’s last day is today!  It was kind of annoying having them all finish at different times. 

Seeing that I’m a little really behind on my weekly updates I’ll do a recap of our spring.  The last 8 weeks have flown by but have been so much fun. I am just loving the ages that the kids are at right now. 

• We had a nice relaxing spring break with a visit from cousins then we went to Rockville for Easter.  We took the boys to an Egg Hunt and learned that when someone says you are only allowed to get 10 eggs that a boy with Autism will interpret that as he HAS to get 10 eggs and will have a complete meltdown when he only finds 7.  Thankfully the egg hunt at home went much smoother. 

• Hannah played Middle School Soccer which she loved.  She played really well and liked getting to know the girls on the team.  After spending hours on the team bus she also learned how to french braid and then came home and taught me!
• May was packed full of concerts and field trips.  I got to go to Lansing with Joe to see the capital.  Hannah, Rachel and Joe all had choir concerts and Rachel had a band concert. 
• My mom and I started a HUGE garden.  I should have enough tomatoes to make enough pasta sauce to last the whole year.  I planted some pumpkins and celery just for fun.
• To end the school year we had a pool party for the kids and some friends.  It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and the kids all got along really well.

I’m hoping now that school is over I’ll be able to keep up with my weekly wrap ups a little better.    We’ve got some fun plans for the summer.

Melanie